In the 1800s, the industrial revolution changed the way the world approached production and manufacturing and improved efficiency, modernizing the way goods were produced. Fast forward to today, and the age of “digital transformation” where operations and processes of all industries are adapting to a new way of conducting business. The equipment lease and finance industry, like its revolutionary predecessor, is going through a digital transformation, where updated digital processes are improving efficiency, lowering costs and reducing errors.
The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation released its “2017 Industry Future Council: Staying Ahead of Tomorrow” report, which explores trends, challenges and opportunities and evaluates how these issues may impact the equipment leasing and financing business moving forward. I found several topics in the report to be encouraging.
Digital Forces of Change: The Evolution of FinTech
Last year, we predicted that marketplace lending would continue to upend traditional lending practices and highlighted that by utilizing the innovative technological advances of the 21st century, alternative lending solutions not only appeal to the buyer, but are proven processes that meet and exceed the demands of the consumers and commercial clients—and the equipment lease and finance industry is no exception.
The 2017 Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation report confirmed that our prediction was correct and noted that, “…many FinTechs are evaluating the potential cost advantages of partnering with banks, formally or informally. Indeed, partnerships between banks and FinTechs are changing the competitive landscape. Thus, FinTechs are moving through a normal business cycle—albeit faster than traditional finance companies.”
Digital Transformation: The Industry Looks to the Future
As noted in the report, “Successful industry leaders won’t use 2017 thinking to plan for 2025. Only by projecting the trajectory of these advancing technologies and using “day-after-tomorrow” thinking can we understand how our world is changing, and along with it, our customers and the outcomes they seek. Customers don’t care what’s important to us; they care about what’s important to them. And if equipment finance companies can’t innovate fast enough, customers will turn to others who can meet their needs in new ways.”
A fully digital transaction management solution benefits equipment lease and finance companies by providing:
- Improved customer experience efficiency – provide leasing clients with a fully digital lending experience from pre-loan to signature through to transfer to third parties
- Reduced transaction costs – moving from digital to paper allows lenders to reduce the cost of origination and asset management through the asset life cycle
- Greater operational efficiency – identify errors before closing and streamline the entire leasing operation with digital transactions
To streamline the industry’s digital transformation, Odessa Technologies, DocuSign and eOriginal have joined forces to provide an end-to-end digital solution that starts with loan origination and covers the eSignature, electronic vaulting and through to the secondary markets.
