New developments help lessors
to drive value from deals.
Go deeper with GlobalData
A drive among lessors to
improve process, retain clients and to be more agile has put
renewed focus on the effectiveness of their IT systems.
Automated systems and online facilities have
become more or less commonplace among lessors as they strive to
keep business practices up-to-date and cost-effective. Now software
providers report a shift in attitude among those investing in
IT.
The new focus is on efficiency and ensuring
large volumes of business – including cross-border deals – can be
handled quickly, cheaply and easily, with software providers
looking to upgrade their established products to accommodate
this.
Asset and motor finance software provider CHP
Consulting recently updated ALFA to version 5, and is now preparing
to launch its version 5 for fleet.
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By GlobalDataAndrew Denton, sales and marketing director at
CHP, said: “Not much has changed, which is important for our
positioning. It’s a migration, not a rewrite. We’ve been putting
functionality into our software for 20 years. We know it’s working,
it’s industry led and it’s got an existing client base. If you
rewrite from scratch, there’s no way you can catch up on 20
years.”
Behind the progression is a drive to make it
as easy as possible for customers to move from one version of the
system to the next.
While lessors have become more reliant on
software to support their business, they are now demanding better
returns from their investment in technology, especially since the
economic downturn.
“Customers want a tangible payback. Reading
between the lines, people are buying for subtly different reasons
than they were in good times. They are now thinking more about
costs and there has been a shift away from sales to process
enablement. People are thinking, ‘how do I use tools like workflow
to make the process faster?’” Denton said.
As lessors have become more sharply focused on
retaining existing customers, the transparency of their systems, as
well as speed and efficiency, has become crucial.
Denton said: “The shift is to making more from
less. If there are fewer customers in the market, you’ve got to
look at retention. You have to ensure you’re not losing too many
customers. People want to understand the risk inherent in the way
they do business. It is very difficult to sell a system that
doesn’t include transparency.”
Web 2.0
Software provider White Clarke Group, which
recently upgraded its CALMS platform with the release of CALMS 2,
has also seen a shift in attitude among clients.
Brendan Gleeson, sales and marketing director,
said: “We are seeing a significant interest in our CALMS 2 platform
because of the global shift to a rich web-based interaction and
desire for self serve.
“This is driven by a dual desire to reduce the
cost to serve and maximize customer service. In a self-serve world,
the customer or dealer does the work themselves, but how and when
they want to, so both parties are happy.”
Gleeson added that web 2.0 has played a
significant part in creating demand for software solutions among
lessors wanting an interactive online presence. The next demand
from lessors is the ability to help them adapt quickly in terms of
cost and scale.
“Some businesses we deal with are seeing or
planning for large increases in volume and they need to reduce
costs in order to maximize economies of scale. Other lessors are
seeing a shift to lower volumes but at larger ticket size. Again,
they need to adjust their cost structure,” Gleeson said.
IT provider International Decision Systems
(IDS) reports the early signs of an upturn in sales of its
products. It has seen a change in customer requirements including
demand for systems to be able to support mergers.
CEO and executive chairman Tom Thomas said:
“If one company buys another, then we’re able to help them combine
processes onto a single system. People want one economically
scalable platform. It looks like we’ve gone through the bottom and
people are back to thinking about growth, as opposed to slowing
down. We’re seeing a modest improvement in sales.”
The company’s focus has been on developing new
versions of its ProFinia and Rapport offerings.
“We think it was the right strategy to develop
these during the recession, as opposed to scaling back on
capabilities and then having to scramble to catch up,” Thomas
said.
