It’s easy to get caught up trying to compare the bells and whistles when choosing the best wholesale finance software – also known as floorplan finance software in the US. To break the rut, we suggest taking a step back.
First, look at your operations, figuring out what’s missing and what you want to achieve. These goals might include…
- Making the most of your resources by automating operations
- Introducing credit capabilities your current processes do not or cannot provide
- Improving the efficiency of program maintenance processes
- Expanding your API integrations and improving architecture
Once you’ve nailed this down, you can better assess what kind of supplier and product you’re looking for and what sort of services you require.
You can break this down into three key vendor selection considerations:
1. Vendor profile
Your vendor should, first and foremost, have expertise in providing the solution you seek. A provider with a clear functional and technical roadmap will keep you on track for success and clear about the cost and clarity of upgrade paths. The vendor’s existing customers are ideally businesses like yours, which are satisfied with the product in use and in regular contact with the vendor partner.
Secondly, your vendor should help smaller lenders profit as easily as the big players. Suppose it’s your first venture into wholesale finance as a lender, for example. In that case, a vendor should accommodate your requirements as well as it can for a veteran wholesale finance provider. Forward-thinking, innovative vendors should be able to level the field by giving their customers with smaller portfolios the same tools and opportunities available to more extensive, wholesale-focused organizations.
These vendors should help new players on the field disrupt the established status quo by accommodating new ways of thinking and working – such as providing access to an open finance platform that makes API integrations and architectural improvements a breeze. You shouldn’t need an extensive portfolio to get a quality solution and excellent vendor service, and a vendor that offers a software-as-a-service platform should allow them to provide services to customers of all sizes.
Suppliers working solely with large organizations may not provide affordable scalability for newer or smaller wholesale lenders or keep up with growth and expansion.
2. The product
True product evolution means you’re investing in a solution that benefits its community of users via ongoing development and enhancements. To optimize the process of implementing the system and getting your wholesale finance line up and running, take the time to find a product-in-action, cloud-based solution. Key benefits include being able to equip your business with scalable functionality in weeks rather than months, and the cloud offering flexible modularity that can grow and evolve with you.
Optimal use of critical resources is a significant consideration for any operation, so you should be looking at vendors that can provide a product requiring minimal internal support. Look for suppliers that won’t stress your IT resources to roll out updates and manage hosting for their product. An ideal software platform addresses these requirements for you.
3. Cost
Pricing will always be a defining consideration for whether implementing a new software product is feasible for wholesale finance lenders, especially those new to wholesale lending.
On a basic level, your finance software should provide measurable improvements to critical indicators such as revenue, direct operational savings, and risk mitigation. Another key measure is how it improves your overall capabilities and customer satisfaction. Self-service options can come in especially handy here, letting your dealers and suppliers conduct business without needing the lender’s manual involvement.
Comprehensive vendor management of IT resourcing, local tech support, and maintenance costs mean saving on your resource costs – a huge benefit of a software product for businesses of any size. It’s worth keeping this in mind when searching for a vendor that would work well with your business years down the line.
Find your missing puzzle piece
Ultimately, the end goal of settling on a wholesale finance software supplier is adding value to customer interaction, streamlining operations, risk mitigation, and promoting new business, whether you’re new to wholesale finance or not. The most effective open finance platform on the wholesale finance software market can do all these things and scale as you grow – all at a cost-effective, use-based price point.
Taking a step back from the end goal to look at the bigger picture will help you adapt the right software effortlessly into your operations.
Find the supplier that makes you wonder how your business operated so smoothly without them. Get in touch with Solifi today.
