Internet Based Lease Accounting Software: Creating Operational Effeciency While Crunching Numbers
Picture: Creating Operational illustration |
The leasing industry is yet to significantly harness the powers of the Internet. Despite the hype, the web enabling of the leasing process has been sporadic at best.
While the
industry has already taken to the Internet's obvious convenience for credit
scoring and front-end application processing, a larger and perhaps a more
significant impact on productivity has yet to be realized.
The advent of the
lease life-cycle management model can realize this untapped potential for
productivity and, if implemented well, can even directly enhance profitability.
Online lease
management and accounting software certainly has the makings of a paradigm
shift in the lessor's approach to the lease accounting software.
More
specifically, it holds enough promise to replace the client/server model just
as the client/server model itself dethroned the main frame.
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The Benefits of an Internet Model based Lease Management system
To implement, the
Internet model is much simpler than its client/server based counterpart,
demanding nothing more than a secure Internet server on which the lease
accounting software and database reside.
Each of the
limitless number of computers accessing the server can run any operating
system, be it Apple Macintosh or Windows 2000, with nothing more than access to
the Internet. By inference, the type of Network and the leasing software's
compatibility to it no longer matters.
Even the physical
implementation of the network itself, in laying down the wiring and
connections, becomes redundant when any authorized computer belonging to any
authorized user, is part of the virtual network.
In this respect,
especially for lessors with multiple operations in different locations, the
model used in the lease management software is a boon that takes no more
significant effort to tie two computers into its virtual network as it does
2,000.
Even training
employees to use the lease accounting software becomes easy when there is one
standard program worldwide.
This immediate
scalability and operating-system/network-independence of the leasing software
model makes it possible for lessors of all sizes to experience IT benefits
unknown in the client/server world.
It would seem
that today's nascent Internet technology compromises the functional power of
the client/server model in their leasing software; complex algorithms required
to amortize income or calculate yields appear hard or even impossible to
replicate on a browser.
Fortunately,
however, with the growing sophistication of Internet developmental platforms
such as Microsoft's Active Server Pages, Internet applications run a tight race
with client/server technologies.
The Internet based lease accounting software enables yields and depreciation schedules to be calculated with the same click of a button.
Internet Based Lease Accounting Software: Creating Operational Effeciency While Crunching Numbers
The lease
management software facilitates reports to be sorted, filtered and queried to
obtai any conceivable information available in the database. Income, IDC and
residual can be accrued, blended and separated, just like they are in
client/server systems.
Not surprisingly,
even technology as complex as an Enterprise Resource Planning system,
simultaneously used for solutions from global car-manufacturing to domestic
chemical-production, runs on Internet-based applications today similar to the
internet based lease accounting software.
Leading ERP
vendors including SAP, Oracle Financials and PeopleSoft, for instance, have
tried and tested success stories of highly versatile and complex system that
are browser based.
"Lease
Management Software", says Jay Mehra, COO of Odessa Technologies, Inc.,
"though sophisticated in its own right, can quite easily be implemented on
the Internet."
Despite the complexity, therefore, the functional powers of traditional models are easily captured in Internet-based applications.
Functionality of the Internet model and the Lease Management Software
While
functionally the Internet application is interchangeable, its differentiating
quality lies in its approach to data. By the very nature of their technology,
client/server systems typically just crunch numbers.
A good Internet
based application, on the other hand, maximizes the value of that data, in
addition to maintaining it. This translates into a direct value-add for the
lessor's operational efficiency.
Sales staff can,
for instance, be allowed to access the leasing software from anywhere they can
connect to the Internet.
During
negotiations, they can obtain historic information about the lessee to make
informed decisions for new business opportunities through the lease management
software. The traditional one-way pipelines of data delivery thus become forums
for information exchange.
Equally
important, as shown by the diagram above, the new channels of Internet-driven
communication can now enhance the lessor's external relationships.
Odessa
Technologies, developer of a wholly web-based Lease management and accounting
software, uses a series of independent web sites that ties the lessor with its
various business partners.
Through their
lessee web site, lessees can get online help, access important account
information, download invoices and even make secure Net payments enabled by the
lease management software.
Moreover, by
leveraging the critical data residing within the Internet application, the
lessor can even customize business promotions based on the individual lessee
logging onto the system.
Far from being just a tool that manages a part of the leasing business, lease management software thus becomes a way of conducting and even marketing the business.
Internet Based Lease Accounting Software: Creating Operational Effeciency While Crunching Numbers
Through the
Internet model the leasing software is able to bring about new sources of
productivity, both direct and implied, are thus created from business
relationships that are fuelled by information flow. LeaseWave© - A new Wave in.
Lease Accounting Software
While the
advantages of Internet-based applications are obvious, there is a conspicuous
absence of such technology in the leasing industry. It is this gap between the
ideal technology and what is typically available that Odessa Technologies, Inc.
is fulfilling.
With the release
of LeaseWave©, a technology built entirely on Microsoft's Internet platforms,
Odessa brings the lease management process online.
Through
LeaseWave© and technological collaborations with companies such as
CapitalStream and Ivory Consulting, the company offers a comprehensive solution
that is entirely Internet based by way of the lease accounting software.
LeaseWave©, at
its core, provides for complete asset management and lease accounting
functionality, allowing the lessor to efficiently manage any number of lease
portfolios in the leasing software.
Beyond this core,
LeaseWave© provides a series of interactive web sites that connects the lessor
with business partners including lessees, funding sources, auctioneers and
banks via the lease management software.
Each line of
communication in the lease software employs secured socket layers for complete
security and is even e-commerce enabled, allowing for secure online ACH and
credit card payments.
Creating Operational Effeciency While Crunching Numbers
The efficiencies
that they have realized, however, represent only the beginnings of a greater
change. Still to be tapped are the efficiencies of large data-rich back-end
processes.
The web-enabling
of lease management and accounting software, by companies such as Odessa
Technologies, is a step towards this efficiency-realization.
As Internet
technology seeps into the back-end, the leasing industry stands to experience a
rare paradigm shift: one where the technology drives the process rather than
being driven by it.
Madhu Natarajan,
CEO Odessa Technologies, Inc.
Madhu Natarajan
became the CEO of Odessa Technologies, Inc. He has consulted for various
companies including Caterpillar, Inc and Crowe Chizek, LLP; Madhu brings with
him an extensive research based leasing background with 5 years of leasing
software experience.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Business Administration from Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL; Madhu graduated Magna Cum Laude. (*)