Lenders Outsource Forms Management

About a year ago, I did an informal survey of F&I product providers.  They were, and still are, moving toward a service-oriented architecture that prints forms and originates contracts online.  For providers who do not have a forms service, Provider Exchange Network will host forms at a nominal charge.  We offer this as a convenience, even though providers are moving away from it.

Lenders, however, are not moving in this direction.  This is mainly due to stricter regulation of finance contracts, and also the disparate experiences of the two groups.  In the late nineties, finance sources – both captive and independent – developed online credit systems. They subsequently moved to aggregators like Dealer Track, and many single-lender systems shut down.

So, while product providers have retained their online systems, and support their own services for e-contracting, most lenders do not.  This is why my colleagues in Lender Services are busy loading their forms library, while we are unloading ours.

Web Services for F&I

I have just returned from the annual F&I conference.  It was a treat to see all my old friends in the industry.   I participated in a panel discussion on web services, an area where I have some experience.  Click here for my white paper.

The discussion was well attended, even at five o’clock with the open bar beckoning.  Not bad for a technical topic.  The panel was cordial, even though we are mostly competitors.  There was some debate over my assertion that web services can reduce IT costs.

From the audience questions, I detected genuine interest – and I believe we gave some useful answers.  Thanks to Brian, Brent and Kumar.  Let’s meet again next year!

Process Agnostic

Here’s a tip for designers of F&I software.  The way to win a feature-function debate is to challenge the other guy’s understanding of the process.  A surprising number of design decisions are made with no attention to process.

When, exactly, is the dealer going to do that?

Standalone product portals are just one example, where the F&I manager has to break his flow for a one-off activity and some extra keypunching.  By the way, pretty much every downstream system must have a DMS interface.

Among experienced designers, two techniques are successful.  One is to have a thorough understanding of the process.  Does he print the menu first, or the finance contract?  The big DSPs have people who study this all day long, on videotape.

The other technique is to design your software to work with more than one process – nonspecific, or “agnostic” in the vernacular.  This is not an excuse to duck process decisions.  On the contrary, you have to choose specific decisions not to make, and then design for various uses.

For example, MenuVantage can read an existing deal from the DMS, or create a fresh one and insert it.  It takes extra programming to support both processes, but it overcomes a likely objection from the dealer.

BMW Dealer Visit

TruckIn my business, you can never spend too much time in the dealership.  I bought a new car over the weekend, and took the opportunity to study their software (they didn’t believe me, that I had invented the InfoBahn).

“Hey, can I sign this waiver electronically?”  No.

“Does this desking system push to ADP?”  Not exactly.

Aeros is a slick little system, certified by BMW two years ago.  I gather they’re in a couple hundred dealerships.  I liked Aeros a lot, but noticed the F&I Manager rekeying between it and ADP.  Just user error, I hope.

The same goes for the menu presentation.  Scratching out the GAP row with a Sharpie is probably not what Maxim intended.

I enjoyed using Zag.  They have a good, web-friendly process, and it gets you close to invoice before the first phone call.  Of course, this cuts into gross – but hey, I drove past the other BMW dealer.  Like many BMW drivers, I will order a car sight-unseen. This makes BMW a prime brand for online selling, and Zag.