Development of the leasing market
Recent years have shown the scale and speed of development of the leasing market. And it is not only about the funds that are allocated to financing the leased items. Companies systematically supplement their offer with additional products, preparing entire packages of services supplementing financing proposals for their clients. For many companies, it is a significant source of income.
One of the most popular cross-selling products are, above all, motor insurance (collision, comprehensive, assistance), GAP and property protection. Their increasing number, as well as the multitude of variants and configurations not only meet the market expectations. There is also an emerging IT challenge aimed at ensuring fast, comprehensive and problem-free customer service at every stage of their interaction with the lessor. The constantly expanding range of both basic and additional products, as well as the handling of financial and insurance offering processes, requires precise coordination of operational activities. From the lessor’s point of view, one of the key success factors is to present the customer with a complete and attractive offer. An offer that will contain not only a specific financing proposal, but also an insurance proposal and information on additional products, such as windshield insurance, possible variants of extended assistance or legal protection insurance.
Risks? Speed matters!
At this point, it should be said that this is not always the case. Even in a situation where the adviser has all the necessary information about the offered item, the financial part and the insurance part of the commercial proposal are often not presented at the same time. They are divided by the time necessary to send data and prepare the necessary information, e.g. by an external broker or an insurance multiagency cooperating with a leasing company. Such an asynchronous model of operation makes it possible to come up with an insurance proposal, for example by the dealer who supplies the leased object. Very often at this time, the client also tries to obtain the most attractive insurance offer possible by contacting his agent or a recommended insurance agency.
Often, the process described above results in the rejection of the insurance proposal presented by the lessor. So how to eliminate this risk factor and present the client with a comprehensive financial and insurance offer? Speed of action matters. More precisely, the speed and coordinated operation of IT systems.
A system supporting the management of the insurance portfolio
In their daily activities, leasing companies use many systems, including: a system supporting credit procedures and risk analysis, a sales system, BPM systems or customer relationship management (CRM) systems. One of the components of the IT architecture may be a system supporting the management of the insurance portfolio. In the material announcing the series of articles named “Insurance Policies Factory”, I mentioned the necessary feature of such a solution indicated by leasing companies: the possibility of integrating it into the existing system infrastructure. Why is it so important? Because it guarantees the speed of operation through the smooth exchange of information between systems.
A modern component supporting the policy portfolio management provides the so-called API, i.e. slightly simplifying – connects to other systems in the lessor’s infrastructure. Thanks to this solution – with one click – a sales representative is able to create a complete financial and insurance offer and present the client with a full set of information during one meeting. This click starts the process of instant data exchange on the subject of the lease between the sales application, in which the financial offer is created, and the insurance component. The latter, in turn, using the web service technology, communicates directly with the companies’ quote services and receives an insurance offer. Then it immediately passes it to the sales system.
The process designed in such a way undoubtedly creates a competitive advantage and minimizes the risk of losing the insurance contract for the leased object. It also guarantees – through the use of a modern insurance component – offering insurance products based on the most current rates.
