Having the right
multi-language and multi-currency capabilities are two of the ‘Holy
Grails’ of
leasing technology. Antonio Fabrizio
discovers how they should be run.
Multi-language and
multi-currency capabilities are two of the key features that
international lessors require from software companies for their
cross-border operations. But how do they work and what are their
major characteristics?
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For Andrew Denton, sales and
marketing director at CHP Consulting, the multi-language
functionality is “the easier of the two”, because it is mostly a
case of “translating the view that people will have of the system
in different languages”.
Leasing software systems usually
have the major languages already built in.
Effectively, within the software
there is a ‘library’ that is built by taking a list of words,
translating them into another language and uploading them into the
system.
If the language required is not
there, a new library needs to be added, which is a case of doing
the translation and sucking it into the machine.
According to Bynx director Mark
Binks, a leasing software system could theoretically support any
number of languages, even though with multi-character languages
things tend to be more complicated.
Binks said that it is also quite
straightforward to swap from one language to another, although
having a proper ‘multi-multi-language’ system – one which deals
with a multiple number of languages at the same time, like in the
case of a Belgian-based lessor – could be a challenge.
Having a system that supports
multi-language functions does not mean, however, that a leasing
company has different databases across several geographical
locations.
“You will have one corporate
database, but you need to have data in the language you might be
engaging with your client,” Binks said.
Similarly, Denton highlighted that
different languages are not used across the board, but there is a
greater use where the system “touches the customer”.
He added: “Lessors sometimes wish
to standardise on a particular language in the back office, but
down to the way that most leasing companies are organised, one
would most often see a far greater use of multilingual techniques
at the point of sale, or within customer service.”
Another interesting process is that
multilingual techniques can also be used within the same language –
with specific lists of words built in the software – because
different lessors in the same country tend to use different
vernaculars rather than just an off-the-shelf language.
This may prove helpful, for
instance, in the sales department of a leasing company, with call
centre staff not necessarily highly trained.
For Denton multi-currency
functionality is technically more interesting.
Although multi-currency is
something that software companies have offered for a long time –
for instance, any UK lessor involved in aircraft finance has been
using dollars – there are a number of subtleties to take into
account.
Taking Poland as an example, even
if a deal is in euros, local accounting standards might require the
sales tax is in Polish zloty. As multicurrency is in the same
invoice, the system needs to be able to support that.
Binks said: “You need to be in that
position where the system supports you doing these multi-currency
transactions and bring them back into your corporate ledgers in
your designated currency, at whatever rate you are deciding
upon.”
According to Denton, systems also
need to support forward and reverse time transactions – for
instance allowing a lessor to put in a euro-denominated invoice
within a Swedish company which is referred to a month earlier –
making sure that the system flips over the translation using the
month spot rate, rather than the current spot rate.
Furthermore, for Denton, alongside
the multi-currency feature, equally important are the
multi-business-process and multi-GAAP.
The first involves the system being
flexible enough to have step A after step B in one country and step
B after step A in another, making sure that the work flow supports
different countries. The second involves a system being able to
deal with different accounting principles at the same time.
But for Denton, this is not rocket
science.
He said: “At the end of the day, it
is about getting it right, and our job as software people is to get
it right.”
