IT in the leasing industry
A Brief History of the World as We Know IT - Information Technology in the Leasing Industry Since the mid 1970s, there have been 3 waves of business process automation cycles within the equipment leasing industry. ... Based on the industry segment, various degrees of automation via software applications were implemented. ... The Client Server/PC Wave During the late 80’s into the early 90s, lessors were faced with the new challenge of assisting manufacturers in meeting profitability goals through leasing. ... Selling leasing as an alternate close to drive increased volumes was no longer enough. Manufacturers and vendors looked to leasing as a way to sell varied bundled services such as installation, maintenance, training, and other soft costs. ... With the rise of the Internet, manufacturers desired tighter integration between leasing and other sales/customer service applications. ... The investment required for new entrants decreased, thereby improving overall ease of industry entry. ... ” Meanwhile, industry leaders were unable to quickly navigate the waters of these emerging technologies, and were adverse to the inherent business risks. ... Industry leaders have another chance to seize new technologies and truly automate their business processes while e-originators are regrouping and re-examining the traditional business models of the brick ‘n mortars. The Next Wave The wave of the future in technological innovation has already swept the industry. ... While most leaders within the leasing industry agree that IT expenditures are critical to meeting business requirements, few are able to come up with a specific financial payback to which they can attribute the benefits of their IT initiatives. This was recently the topic at an executive roundtable discussion of 30 CEOs and presidents within the leasing industry. ... The premise then for measuring ROI of IT expenditures within the leasing industry becomes more objective or goal focused. ... These waves of automation have crashed upon the shores of the leasing industry in increasingly rapid tides. ... BIO: Gary DeGregorio is CPO and Vice President of Leasing for ThoughtWorks, Inc, a leading custom e-business application and platform development firm. He has over fifteen years experience in the leasing industry.