In the past, customers needed finance before they could take hold of an asset and that meant working with the lender or broker to get it. This could be a week-long, or longer, process. Today, because of automation, credit decisions can be made in mere minutes.
Conrad Ford, CEO and founder of Funding Options, a company that uses technology to search the market for the best funding options for a client’s situation, stresses that companies could be funded in “fewer than ten minutes”—something that will benefit small, fast-growth businesses. Simply’s Ylva Oertengren also describes quick credit decisioning as having another emerging benefit, too. She says that automation of large parts of the credit decisioning process allows smaller businesses to access funds.
RPA can bring a speedier decision process
The technologies coming online now enable far more than just more informed and speedier credit decisions. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) allows for the automation of repetitive tasks across the board and should have a big impact on leasing companies’ business models in the short-to-medium term”, according to Steve Taplin of Finaptix, a systems consultancy and software solutions implementer for the asset finance and wider financial services sector.
Even for smaller companies, there are opportunities for automation, so long as it serves the greater purpose of building and growing relationships. “Every underwriting job is personal”, says 1pm CEO Ian Smith. “Machine learning, like pattern recognition and RPA, means that we can spend more time with clients—and that isn’t just ‘talking a good service game’. It helps us to understand the essential parts of their story”. 1pm is a provider of finance facilities to the SME sector.
All these developments are very exciting, but automation must not come at the cost of customer experience. New, powerful processes like machine learning and RPA should be leveraged to allow asset finance companies to spend more time understanding clients’ needs—which has the added benefit of increasing transparency and reducing risk.
We hope you found this blog insightful. Read the others in our series, Asset Finance, the Digital Age, and Readying for Success:
Asset Finance, the Digital Age, and Readying for Success
Another Big Asset Management Innovation: Automation
What’s Really Imperative When It Comes to Asset Finance Innovation?
Digital Success Equals Successful Strategic Partnerships
Learn more about Cloud Lending and our Asset Finance Solutions.
