The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association is innovating its research offerings to deliver critical data to its members in a more dynamic and accessible format. As part of this effort, the association launched an interactive edition of the Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA). The Interactive SEFA Dashboard is an online database of 10 years of key findings from the SEFA report, an important source of statistical information available on the $1 trillion equipment finance industry. This new tool allows members to engage with the SEFA in ways they never have before.

The Interactive SEFA Dashboard lets users explore a decade of historical industry benchmarks from the SEFA. The benchmarks encompass a wide range of categories, including new business volume growth, headcount, yield/spread/costs of funds, financial ratios, assets under management, delinquencies and losses and new business volume by state.

In just a few clicks, members can query the SEFA data by all of these metrics and more. With the user-friendly dashboard — which employs the visual analytics software program Tableau — members can segment the data by year, type of organization, market segment, size of organization and business model. Members can select categories, add filters and drill down into specific information. They can explore and analyze the data in seconds, benchmark their company against others in the industry, find their own insights, uncover trends and more.

“We’re very excited to roll out this new tool for members,” said Bill Choi, ELFA vice president of Research & Industry Services. “Expanding the SEFA from an annual report to an interactive dashboard allows users to quickly and easily connect to the information they care about, and take a deeper dive into the data. Whether you’re wondering about trends in the equipment finance industry or looking for new business opportunities, the online SEFA lets you view this rich data set in a new way. We truly believe this is a game changer.”

ELFA produces the SEFA in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition to the new interactive dashboard, the full SEFA Report — which the association has produced since 1975 — is also available. While the new online dashboard provides 10 years of executive summary data, the 300-page 2017 SEFA Report and Small-Ticket Breakout provide comprehensive performance metrics for 115 equipment finance companies for the year 2016.