Pandemic reinforces need for businesses to embrace technology

Businesses need the ability to adapt and reconfigure their processes in an agile and flexible way, following the Coronavirus pandemic, says Sofico.

The automotive software specialist believes businesses need to foster a positive attitude to change, be open to new technology, able to communicate clear steps towards business transformation within a flexible strategy and ensure that they are securely connected to their customers so they can be proactive to market movements.

Andy Page, head of marketing at Sofico Services UK, said: “The Covid pandemic has accentuated the need for businesses to have the ability to reinforce resilience in the face of disruption and be future ready for the next crisis to emerge. The use of the latest technology allows them to adapt quickly and flexibly to change – not be constrained by legacy systems that are one-dimensional and rigid in their approach.”

Many businesses are still operating with legacy systems that are deeply siloed and do not allow quick reconfiguration to respond to external factors like the Covid pandemic.

The latest generation technologies are easily adaptable, scalable and allow for changes to be made that accommodate fluctuations in demand and the need for the quick delivery of services.

Page added: “Sofico is seeing major structural changes in automotive and asset financing globally, with traditional retail financing moving to more complex leasing and purchase models, often with bundled services. Our customers are telling us that they are experiencing increasing pressure to reinvent themselves and stay relevant in the new digital world.”

Sofico’s Miles system can manage different lines of business in asset and automotive finance, rental and mobility management at the same time. Ease of self-configurability enables continuous product innovation and the simple creation and management of campaigns or regulation changes.

Page said: “A growth area we see is in new multi-modal mobility solutions, such as ride sharing and car subscriptions, and to meet this we have developed new usage-based contracts for user-choosers moving regularly between vehicles or transport types.

“The rapid growth of EV vehicles is another area that requires new innovative supporting offers. And we are constantly innovating Miles to meet these needs, for example to enable the offering of connected services through vehicle telematics and charging networks. However, without adaptable, scalable, agile cloud-native systems such innovations just would not be possible. Miles enables our customers to be future ready.”