String of leasing software companies planning to sell mobile
phone lease technology
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Historically, lessors have not used
mobile phone technology as a standard way of conducting their
business. But according to some leasing software providers, as
mobile phones are now able to perform most functions previously
restricted to computers, things could soon change.
For Alun Booth, MD of Field Solutions – which
has developed a mobile phone lease product called FieldCell – the
potential for growth is high, particularly because mobile
technology is both practical and extremely advanced.
“Salesmen who are out there and cannot or
don’t want to carry around a laptop computer can clearly benefit
from it,” he says.
Get quotations
Leasing sales staff and brokers can use their
own mobile phones to get quotations.
“Imagine an area manager who is driving
around, who gets a phone call from a dealer asking for a quotation
for a customer,” Booth said. “If you don’t stop the car and provide
them with the quote and all the information they need, they simply
ring the next finance company, and you lose the deal.”
As well as providing a fast response to
customers, use of mobile phones in lease deals also provides
greater means of control over deals.
“Rather than giving a dealer an ordinary
calculator and a set of rates on a piece of paper, you can give
them accurate information because these products synchronise with
the web so they always get the latest funding rates, commission
terms and promotional schemes,” Booth explained.
Ian Charik, director of leasing at software
provider Copernicus, also highlighted that, with the exception of
the communication function of the phone, all other functions can be
provided off-line, such as when there is not good reception,
because the product also works locally within the mobile phone.
Charik added that its SolarMobile software can
be used as a front-end proposal system with upload and download
functions, and also as a fully-featured industry finance
calculator.
Copernicus is shortly scheduled to launch the
new version of SolarMobile. This will have increased functionality,
including more flexibility in the calculation engine, and the
ability to enter more information about customers and assets which
can then be emailed from a blackberry directly to the funder on to
the broker.
Other companies are still at an early stage in
the development of mobile phone lease technology, but are
potentially interested in creating specific products if demand for
them rises in the future.
Emmanuel Gillet, who heads the
French-headquartered software provider Cassiopae, said: “We are
working on putting our PoS quotation/simulation tool on their smart
phones, using Rich Internet Technology that fits very well with
that type of phone. We are at an early stage at the moment, but the
technology is working fine.”
Gillet added that from the point of view of
technology the product is ready, and not hard to set up.
“You take a piece of software and instead of
running it in a web browser you do it in a smart phone,” he
said.
However, in the main, he does not believe
customers are yet ready for using this technology.
In fact, despite the full functionality in a
slimmed-down version, until now demand has not been very high.
Field Solutions, for example, has seen some demand from captives
and bank-owned lessors, but not much from brokers. Booth believes
there could be a higher demand in the small ticket sector.
Good tool to use
Charik said the low demand depends on the
leasing industry tending to be quite slow to react to technology
changes. However, he added that SolarMobile is a good tool to use
because it can be adapted to so many different deals.
He said: “You can use it also for all types of
deals, including big-ticket deals, because our calculation engine
is designed for unlimited rental streams and unlimited asset
purchases in terms of dates and timings.”
Security is a potential concern. Booth,
however, said there are, in fact, “very few” concerns in this
respect. To illustrate his point, he pointed to the fact that
FieldCell can operate on blackberries, and also benefit from their
existing firewalls.
However, ultimately it will be down to lessors
to decide if these reassurances are enough, and if the time has
come to start using phones for a whole different purpose.
Antonio Fabrizio
