New pay-as-you-go software provides SME leasing companies with recession beating tool, says CFC
Small-medium sized leasing companies are being offered specialist software on a pay-as-you-go basis by CFC Solutions for the first time.
The fleet software company says that the use of fleet leasing software such as its well-established Contract Manager product remains surprisingly low among operators with less than a thousand cars – but that the new PAYG option provides these companies with a potentially recession-beating tool at a very low cost of acquisition.
Neville Briggs, managing director, said: “In our view, out of the whole fleet industry, this is perhaps the area that stands to gain most from adopting specialist software.
“Certainly, we come across some outstanding operations in this sector with professional standards that in some ways rival the major leasing companies but there are also areas where the efficiency gains that our products could produce would be dramatic.
“The problem is that the cost of buying a product like Contract Manager has sometimes proven prohibitive for this sector. By making the software available on a PAYG basis, we are removing this obstacle at a stroke and providing a simple, low-cost way for these companies to gain many kinds of cost control and service benefits.”
A simple example of the gains available through software such as Contract Manager, Briggs explained, was in the area of residual values. A common issue was that vehicles were often sent to auction or through other disposal routes without a full service history.
He explained: “Clearly, RVs are a major issue for leasing companies at the moment, and the residual hits that small leasing companies could take are potentially disastrous. However, software can help minimise losses.
“Any vehicle that is operated using leasing software will have a full history that can be fixed to the windscreen, commonly increasing residual values by 5-10 percentage points. This could easily be the difference between profit and loss.
“This is a mistake that large leasing companies rarely make but which is much more common among small-medium operators. Fleet software can prevent this error.”
In recent months, CFC has been targeting the small-medium leasing sector and has found that the software products in use by many are often ineffectual.
Briggs said: “In this part of the leasing market, spreadsheets are perhaps the most commonly used solution, although finding managers who use paper based systems and work out lease rates with a calculator is not unknown.
“The message that we have been taking to these companies is that leasing software provides the means to put an infrastructure and procedures in place that will enable you to face the recession fully prepared.
“We believe that many of these businesses remain potentially profitable despite the tough economic conditions but that an effective, dedicated software system would bring about huge efficiency gains. PAYG makes this choice easy.”
CFC’s Contract Manager software is designed especially for contract hire and leasing companies, integrating the overall management of fleet contracts, sales and marketing activities and accounting into a single platform.
Contract Manager is the second CFC product to be made available on a PAYG basis, following the company’s Fleet Plus professional level fleet management software.
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