Automotive Finance

A global and increasingly competitive market

The vehicle financing market is an extremely competitive market and the different market players must constantly renew their offer in order to satisfy increasingly demanding customers.

In a difficult economic environment, vehicle manufacturer captive finance houses and independent finance companies activate the same growth drivers in order to increase their activity and margin, by:

Offering special packages including financing, insurances and services, in particular in the renting sector (lease-option or full service rental);
Developing business customers, especially via the rental business;
Strengthening the international activity of the captive finance companies, in particular through the development and growth of some of them in emerging countries.

In this context, market players need technology partners who are able to support them in the creation of new business offers as part of a worldwide deployment.

Increasingly complex financing channels

So far, vehicle manufacturer captive finance houses combine two types of computer tools. On the one hand, they equip their dealers and retailers (effectively playing the role of brokers) in order to offer their final customers retail financing facilities in the form of asset finance and leasing solutions. On the other hand, they equip themselves with one or more wholesale financing management tools. These include, of course, Floor-Plan financing for new and second-hand vehicles, but may also come in the form of medium-term loans granted to finance dealer’s investments (works, expansions etc.), spare parts (e.g. factoring), leasing contracts for company cars, mortgages…

In summary, the financing channels of the vehicle distribution network have reached an unprecedented level of complexity for the car manufacturers and their captive vehicle finance companies, which now play the role of real “banks for dealers”. Some of them now take charge of the direct flows between the car manufacturer and its network, regardless of any funding, acting as a true current account manager.

Admittedly, this variety of flows is a constraint for industrials, captives and distribution networks but it may also become an opportunity, provided that all financing and flow management issues are handled as a whole and designed around embedded software suites combining retail and wholesale financing as well as account management channels.

Linedata’s offer at the heart of the business strategy

Linedata supports these market players around the world with two well-known software packages:

Linedata Ekip ³⁶⁰ and Linedata Profinance, through their Distribution and Management systems.

Thanks to the comprehensive functional coverage of our software solutions, you will be able to offer financing solutions adapted to the needs of your Retail and Wholesale financing activities:

For the financing activities of your end-user clients: secured loan, lease with option to purchase , financial lease, full service rental , fleet management, services contracts ;
For the financing activities of your distribution networks: secured loan, rental of courtesy (or replacement)vehicles, single stock financing (new vehicle, demonstration vehicle, second-hand vehicle, spare parts and accessories), revolvingcredit lines, management of current accounts.

Front-Middle Office

Our offer provides you with all business-related features in order to ensure the Distribution and Management of your commercial offers to end customers and car dealer networks.

For your END CUSTOMERS, Linedata’s offer:

distributes your products at your points of sale and in dealerships;
provides a commercial approach focused on the budget or vehicle according to the client profile.
integrates a sophisticated vehicle-referencing system which allows the customer to specify as closely as possible the model, its options and accessories.
provides a sales tool that matches the customers’ needs (in terms of financing options and services offered, e.g. insurance, maintenance…) with those of the car dealer (in terms of commissions and subsidies).
manages all decision, analysis and risk assessment stages thanks to:
- its various external possibilities to request information from public or private rating agencies, address and bank account checking systems.
- its unique system for following-up versions and proposals;
guides the process of providing funds and checking supporting documentation before disbursement;
provides a personalised follow-up of portfolios for vendors, sales and points of sale managers.

In terms of financing options for your distribution networks, Linedata’s offer includes features which vary according to the following profiles:

Car dealers and/or car dealer holding companies: tool for monitoring detailed liabilities per line of credit and recording new lending or early repayment requests with a forecast of cash flows;
Car manufacturers: follow-up of liabilities per network;
Stock auditors: verification of stocks per car dealer.

Back Office

The completeness of our solution, besides conventional parties management, invoicing and cash flow operations, provides you with more flexibility in day-to-day contract management:

Provision of a wide range of amendments (service modification, renegotiation, partial or total repayment…). These operations, which are initiated directly from the point of sale or from the after-sales service, are backed up onto an integrated workflow. The effective date of the modifications can be retroactive or anticipated and all operations can be cancelled;
“Netting”: mutual debts and agreements can be set off against each other between one or several parties regarding operations of the same nature;
Conversion, extension, credit note issuance, restructuring of floor plan contracts;
Specialised management of retail contract terminations (return, claim, sale or re-leasing of off-lease assets, transfer…) with invoicing of allowances, fees for over- or under-consumption of instalments and services, restoration fees;
Fleet management: technical platform, application of protocols (pricing, invoicing…), bulk processes;
Separate management of late payments according to the contract or customer situation and procedures defined using the embedded workflow. Possibility to use rescheduling and renegotiation functions with reintroduction of unpaid invoices, deferment of monthly repayment invoices etc.
Follow-up of depreciations per leased asset in accordance with the regulatory changes required by the IAS reform;
Embedded auxiliary accounting including a complete ascending and descending accounting audit trail.

Testimonial

“Our financing activities for customers and dealers are managed with a single tool: Linedata Ekip. We manage 70,000 customer contracts, 25,000 new contracts per year and our network includes 300 points of sale and about 1,000 vendors. A team of 35 people is dedicated to contract management. Our front office tool serves as a showcase for dealers; it is a remote input tool and a sales tool facilitating the marketing of financing services. Linedata Ekip’s Front Office communicates with its Back Office and therefore allows us to have a complete and embedded distribution and management solution.

Linedata Ekip has contributed to an increase in our financing market share in Toyota sales and to an improvement of our dealers’ satisfaction. It offers higher reactivity to the end customer because the tool allows him/her to obtain an immediate answer from the dealer in most cases”.

TOYOTA FINANCIAL SERVICES – David Schotkosky – Director of Operations