How can technology help OEMs, fleet managers and dealers create new revenue and diversify their offering? Leon James, the Chief Technology Officer at leading subscription service Wagonex, discusses why looking outside of the box might be the way for many to go.
It’s fair to say that the automotive market has had a lot to navigate in the past few years, it’s no wonder then that many in the industry are looking to diversify. But, where and how?
Innovation and diversification is the key to successful business. Changing with the times, reading the market, predicting trends and reacting quickly means that you are ahead of the game and, hopefully, ahead of your competitors. I believe that taking advantage of technology is key to making this happen – which is why I love being a Chief Technology Officer.
Before coming to Wagonex, I worked in various businesses, from fintech startups, in aviation engineering, as well as in insurance price comparison. In fact, I spent many years working at one of the first insurance comparison websites where, amongst setting up the technology and making sure it was usable for all consumers, we had to convince insurance companies to get on board and buy into the world of insurance comparison. To me, that’s what a vehicle subscription feels like now. We are educating and informing the motor, leasing and fleet industries of the benefits of subscription, of being part of the change – and just look at those multi-million pound early adopters of insurance comparison now.
Throughout my career, working in tech has always been about creating products that add viable and sustainable commercial value. There’s no point creating something that won’t financially work for both the company I work for, and the customers we serve. Not tech over substance, or code before profit. The platform from both the consumer and partner side needs to be easy to use, easy to understand and more importantly – do what it says on the label.
Image: Wagonex
We have a variety of partners with different pinch points, different areas of need, different markets to serve, with customers to help and revenue to create. At Wagonex it’s key for us to understand what our customers need, how they plan to use the platform, what other software they are using and even what they don’t like about other platforms. That’s why we work so closely with our commercial team when developing or improving our tech. They are out there chatting to OEMs, dealers and fleet and lease managers, discussing and learning about what they are looking for in a subscription provider, we take all of that in and we go off and create it.
We have recently released a new version of our main subscription dashboard and throughout its development, we carried out extensive research before writing a line of code, finding out how we have to integrate with legacy business processes and systems to ensure that it seamlessly provides value to our partners and I believe we have achieved that. We’re all about making it as easy as possible for the industry to adopt the subscription model.
Technology doesn’t have to be the thing that hinders a business, as many people in our industry might believe, if you can find a platform that integrates and works with, rather than against your current systems, then you are just adding to your offering and not taking away. Wagonex should be an enabler to your business.
Tech is key to the subscription model, it will help those in the fleet, lease and dealer markets manage their vehicle inventory, as well as offering any additional or returning stock to consumers in an easy way, either via a white-label platform or via Wagonex.com. Tech has also revolutionised the way people buy cars in recent years with the popularity of Cinch and other websites, – subscription is just a step further into the future of car buying and is an alternative to traditional ownership.
Diversification can be scary, but with a product that is commercially astute and appropriate for its market, it doesn’t have to be. Use tech for good, use tech for revenue and use tech to future proof your business – those businesses that do are the most successful and the most profitable.
