In order to compete in today’s rapidly changing world, equipment finance firms are innovating their business processes and recognizing the value of investing in technology upgrades, according to the 2018 ELFA Software Guide released by the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association. This online resource highlights the leading software solutions for the industry and outlines some key technology trends for equipment finance companies.

The 2018 Software Guide includes information on “How Do You Know When It’s Time to Upgrade Your Software Platform?” and outlines the following scenarios when an equipment finance company may decide it’s time to consider a change in systems:

Outdated: You are concerned your current platform is no longer secure, reliable or compliant with new and ever-changing standards, such as the new lease accounting standards and GDPR.

• Inflexible: Your business is constrained by an inflexible system. Whether you are looking to offer new financial products, enter new markets or utilize new sales channels, you need a software platform that gives you the flexibility to grow your business as you need to.
• Not meeting customer needs: Your customers increasingly demand more flexibility in their agreement structures, including a desire to have bundled, managed services or non-standard finance agreements and your current software platform doesn’t support these capabilities.
• Straining headcount: Due to system constraints, you cannot scale your business significantly without increasing headcount.
  Insufficient reporting capabilities: Your key systems do not enable you to access data for meaningful analytics and service-level metrics tracking.
• Not integrated: Your integration capabilities are severely limited, preventing you from providing seamless processing for both internal and external users.
• Slow: Your software platform requires you to remain in overnight batch mode while the rest of the world, including your customers, has moved on to instantaneous response times.
• Out of alignment: Your software platform does not align with your current technology goals or digital strategy. If after assessing your business strategy and capabilities needed to achieve your business objectives you find your current system severely lacking or unable to adapt, it might be time for a change.
• Waning vendor support: Delayed updates or an end-of-life announcement may be commonplace with your vendor. From new functionality to bug fixes, your business is at risk.