A look at the company’s new technological initiatives to improve the dealer experience.
The vendor equipment finance business at TIAA Bank is embarking on a series of digital initiatives to serve its dealer partners more effectively.
“We’ve always been highly focused on the client experience and how we can provide the right digital capabilities to improve that experience,” said Justin Tabone, senior vice president originations, vendor equipment finance at TIAA Bank, in an exclusive interview with The Cannata Report.
Tabone has been with TIAA Bank for more than 15 years. Before his current role, which he took on in April of this year, he spent five years running originations for its healthcare platform. With the acquisition of Everbank by TIAA, the team’s continued focus on technology and digital enhancements have been elevated. For the last few years under Tabone’s leadership, the company implemented several digital products for its healthcare partners, including e-documentation and digital quoting tools. Now, it’s time to up the digital ante for the team’s office technology dealer partners.
“Office products are an area where we see a lot of opportunity for growth for the overall business and my attention is on how technology and digital products can contribute to that growth,” emphasized Tabone.
The Initiatives
One digital initiative currently in progress centers on connectivity in the form of API (application programming interfaces). APIs automate processes and allow TIAA Bank to accept application and funding packages through an electronic connection and respond to dealers in the same manner. This results in a simplified and faster process for both TIAA Bank and its vendor partners.
“We’re implementing APIs with certain vendors, with some manufacturer partners, and with some of the ancillary companies that service the industry,” explained Fred Carollo, vice president, office products originations, vendor equipment finance at TIAA Bank.
Another initiative is focused on enhancing TIAA’s FastAnswers portal, the site dealers use to conduct business on a day-to-day basis.
“It’s something we’re always working on,” said Carollo. “We have a team that works to enhance the capabilities of it, the information it provides, and its ease of use. There are a couple of key things in the enhancements that the dealers are going to be excited about when we roll it out.”
It’s still too early for Carollo to provide any spoiler alerts about the specifics of those enhancements.
More functionality is being added to the current mobility solution dealers’ sales reps access when they are out of the office. The FastAnswers portal allows them to use their mobile phones or tablets to access information and process transactions at the customer site, or from the sales rep’s home office.
Other digital initiatives are aimed at making it easier for dealers to work with TIAA when selling equipment, receiving quotes on returning equipment, and dealing with other asset management issues.
Also new is an asset management initiative that will simplify the processing of equipment coming off-lease.
Invoicing is a big issue in the leasing world and TIAA Bank also has a digital initiative that centers on invoicing.
“There’s been a big trend in the industry to sell solutions versus just selling equipment,” said Carollo. “And with that comes invoicing flexibility, which could be adding in or swapping out equipment or additional details on an invoice that an end-user is requesting. A lot of work is being done on our end where dealers can make some of these changes on their own as a portal function without having to call in, giving them more flexibility to meet their customer demands.”
Another critical area for the financing team and the dealer is meter management. TIAA Bank has a digital initiative for that too.
All these digital initiatives are focused on making it easier for dealers to do business with TIAA’s vendor equipment financing team.
“If you make it easy, it’s no different than anything else in our lives, especially from a digital perspective,” said Carollo. “If you make it easy and information-rich, people will gravitate towards it.”
Timeline
The initiatives are in different stages of development. Some are enhancements to existing capabilities, others are in creation mode, others in planning mode, and some in final testing mode. By the end of the fourth quarter, the team expects to roll out enhancements to its meter technology, which includes integration with ECI e-automate and other platforms.
“We are expecting a big release there that the community will see and feel,” teased Carollo. “The same thing with the portal. We have some enhancements that’ll be coming out in the fourth quarter that will change the look and feel of it.”
According to Tabone, “It’s all about the client experience and ensuring we have the right tools and resources available for our dealers. Enhancing our systems will help dealers with growing their business, closing more sales, and improving their margins.”
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Every Dealer Matters
In The Cannata Report’s Annual Dealer Survey, more dealers identify TIAA Bank’s vendor equipment team as their primary leasing partner compared to previous years.
“Our general philosophy in this group that we’ve had from day one, is we value the vendor as our customer and we understand that throughout our organization,” said Carollo. “We try our best to be partners with the dealers we work with and treat them the way customers should be treated. That alone has been key in getting us to where we are.”
TIAA Bank’s philosophy is every dealer matters.
“It’s not about deals,” explained Carollo. “It’s all about the relationship for us. It starts with our field salespeople and goes right into our operations center and at the back end with our asset management team. All departments are tasked with deepening and building relationships with our dealers. As time goes on, I’m not surprised we have more and more fans out there waving our flag because it sometimes takes a while for relationships to get deep. Many of our top dealers that we do a significant amount of business with have been with us from day one. If not day one, within the first couple of years of our existence. And they stayed with us and watched us get stronger through each one of our acquisitions. That’s the reason behind our success, and our continued success is building deep relationships.”
Tabone agrees.
“Across our entire business, our salespeople are subject matter experts in their respective industries and a true extension of the dealer’s team. They are individuals that make a meaningful contribution to our partners’ sales and the growth of their businesses.”
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