Is your finance team overwhelmed by stacks of paperwork and time-consuming data entry? Do lengthy financing approvals and frustrated customers sound familiar? Are outdated systems holding you back from delivering excellent service?
Many professionals in auto finance would likely say “yes” if they’re still relying on traditional, “good enough” processes. That’s why automation projects, especially those using document intelligence, are becoming popular across the industry. They provide faster, more efficient workflows, improve customer experience, and retain business relationships—all while cutting costs.
Yet, securing buy-in for document intelligence initiatives can be difficult. Auto finance and dealership operations often view these projects as expenses rather than profit-generating investments.
Document intelligence: Game-changer for auto finance, dealerships
This perception is changing as more businesses recognize the competitive advantages of speed, accuracy and automation. Securing corporate support for your document intelligence project is feasible, especially when you advocate for solutions that streamline updates at a lower cost compared to lengthy custom development cycles.
Here are some tips for building a compelling business case for getting your document intelligence project noticed and funded.
Envision success
Begin by defining what success looks like for your organization. Map out current systems and processes and identify pain points hindering efficiency, accuracy or customer satisfaction.
Look for opportunities such as:
- Instances of manual data re-entry;
- Use of multiple systems to complete one task; and
- Impacts on staff productivity and satisfaction, corporate decision-making or customer experience.
This is the time to think ambitiously. Seek input from stakeholders — from those handling day-to-day operations such as finance managers and sales associates to strategic decision-makers, including the dealership’s general manager.
Ask your technology partners to provide insights from similar organizations inside and outside your industry.
Begin with quick wins
Next, prioritize your efforts by identifying small, high-value projects that can be completed quickly and easily with measurable results. The goal is to demonstrate automation’s value and ROI within weeks or months, gaining credibility, building traction and securing continued funding across multiple budget cycles.
Consider starting with document intelligence projects like:
- Automating loan application processing with real-time document verification;
- Streamlining customer onboarding with electronic signatures and instant access to financing options; and
- Implementing faster document retrieval and compliance checks.
Once you’ve narrowed your options, engage your technology provider and IT team. Review available document intelligence solutions and develop requirements specific to your use cases and internal systems.
Most importantly, quantify projected efficiency gains from automating document processes. This could involve supporting rapid growth without additional hiring or improving productivity and reallocating existing team members to higher-value activities. Utilize lenders that have experience in addressing and implementing your use cases with tangible results.
Iterate rapidly
To finalize your business case, highlight the speed and ease of deploying document intelligence solutions. They are significantly faster to implement, and easier to learn and use, compared to purchasing and training users on new systems or continuing manual data entry. Collaborate with your project team, IT department and technology partners to identify a first project to implement quickly.
Demonstrate in your business case how you’ll track improvements, measure ROI and document future opportunities. Stakeholders appreciate knowing how you’ll apply what you’ve learned to future endeavors and use their support wisely.
Create momentum beyond a single project with document intelligence
Whether your goal is expediting financing approvals, streamlining customer onboarding or improving compliance, the benefits of document intelligence are quickly valued and quantified. An approach that envisions success begins with speedy wins and iterates rapidly, ensuring that your automation journey starts strong and maintains momentum for years to come.
An earlier version of this article appeared on Auto Finance News.
