EVOLVING digital technologies promise to revolutionise the industry over the coming years, a process that is already well underway.
As new digital technology becomes more embedded, it promises to be a win-win-win situation, with benefits accumulating for customers, auto manufacturers and of course vehicle leasing firms.
Digitisation and its fast-developing, underlying technologies have already begun to impact the industry on various fronts. Opportunities lie in areas such as data monetisation, digital marketing and electronic documentation.
Emerging blockchain, cloud, artificial intelligence and automation technology is shaking up the entire car leasing process, making it quicker, simpler and more efficient, while dramatically cutting down on the paper trail.
Platform choice
Fleet leasing and mobility firm Alphabet has been making significant investments in its icon SME technology platform over recent years. Icon has been set up as an end-to-end sales platform, from quote through to paperless invoice.
The platform enables brokers and retailers to virtually walk a customer around the car to build both the vehicle and the leasing contract to the customer’s exact specification and requirements.
Once customers have selected their vehicle and options, a calculation tool can perform thousands of quotes per second, enabling brokers and retailers to view key information on payments, contract terms and mileage options. Icon also includes a visual carousel feature displaying real-time vehicle offers, enabling quick comparisons across product types.
Blockchain concept
Blockchain pilots within car leasing have similarly focused on simplifying processes and eliminating paper documents.
In recent years, a project between electronic agreements specialist DocuSign and payments giant Visa sought to specifically target the car leasing industry with blockchain technology, combining DocuSign’s Digital Transaction Management (DTM) platform and eSignature solution with Visa’s secure payments technology.
Again, the technology enabled customers to virtually access a car on a showroom floor: the DocuSign/Visa concept purported to allow customers to configure the lease, insurance and other “everyday purchases” such as parking and tolls.
The premise behind the use of blockchain was that the underlying smart contracts were ideally suited to car leasing, enabling multiple parties to access the immutable, shared blockchain system of record.
Cloud software
New cloud software is being rapidly deployed across the global car leasing industry, with technology providers claiming some big wins for leasing companies as their customers get the benefit of digital technology, automation and real-time processes.
Texas-based software company Q2 says leasing firms have been able to achieve double-digit sales growth as a result of switching to its Cloud Lending platform.
Built on Salesforce.com, Cloud Lending gives leasing firms origination, servicing, contract management and debt collection. Q2 claims the platform enables leasing firms to cut down on manpower and redeploy human resources to other value-added activities.
It says the technology can also reduce costs and improve efficiency, often enabling leasing firms to discontinue using multiple, disparate, unconnected legacy platforms.
Digital marketing
Along with improving processes, digital technology is additionally being used to win customers and better understand them.
Honchō, a digital marketing agency focused on the automotive sector, points to research that shows 39% of customers looking for their next car begin their search on google.
It thus highlights the importance of search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts for leasing firms. Honchō maintains that increased online visibility, targeted at the right users, will result in higher footfall and a better chance of client conversion.
SEO firms tend to focus on using client data to improve marketing efforts, making campaigns more relevant and therefore more effective for the target audience.
In a similar vein, Clound Lending says its platform helps leasing firms to make better use of data that is already within their system, thereby providing intelligent insights for actionable business decision making.
Harnessing the data of clients and prospects could not only help with marketing efforts, but also provide the basis to strengthen the entire leasing proposition.
