On May 19 the ELFA held an ELFA Innovation Roundtable, where attendees enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation focused on the theme “Beyond Portals: Evolving Digital Customer Experience.” During the interactive discussion, participants gained insights into how industry peers are dealing with the rapidly evolving landscape of digital customer experience solutions and adoption strategies.

The Innovation Roundtable was hosted and facilitated by Deborah Reuben, CEO and founder of TomorrowZone, and featured panelists from the ELFA Technology Innovation Work Group, including:

• Barry Beer, director, Business Technology Strategy, Dell Financial
• Eldon Richards, CTO, Solifi
• Lisa Fitzgerald , SVP Technology, Finova Capital
• Rafe Rosato, chief innovation officer, DLL Group
• Robert Preville, CEO, Kwipped/Approve

Nancy Pistorio, chair of the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, started the roundtable with opening remarks.

Key Takeaways

TomorrowZone compiled the following observations and questions that came out of the event:

• Is the traditional equipment finance portal a notion of the past? What is the future? We need to understand what is possible with technology and how customer preferences are changing, and find new ways to interact, engage and add value beyond the portal.
• How do we want customers to communicate? And even more important, how do customers want to communicate?
• Really focus on who your customer is and create the experience that brings them value.
• Customers want fast, simple experiences. Keep it super easy and safe.
• User experience goes beyond financing.
• Meet customers where they are — more and more customers expect a digital experience in their pocket.
• There is a lot of talk about adding financing to the point of sale. Instead of asking how do we add financing to the point of sale, we should be asking: Where is the point of sale? And we should be focusing instead on the point of influence.