FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — Mercedes-Benz Financial announced it has launched a new, full contract data validation system that integrates with dealers management systems.

The program, called eValidate, is designed to perform more than 100 validations of information within seconds, helping to reduce errors that are commonly found within lease worksheets, lease agreements, retail contracts and retail law contracts.

"For the first time, Mercedes-Benz Financial now has a direct interface with a dealer service provider, which will enable us to provide more seamless and efficient operational processes for our dealer network," stated Jeffery Stevens, contract acquisition strategies manager at the captive.

Advent Resources in San Pedro, Calif. was one of the first DSPs to fully integrate eValidate, and more have already followed or are expected to throughout the next year, Mercedes-Benz Financial noted.

DSP Automatic Data Processing rolled out eValidate in August as a pilot program and, through its reported success, Mercedes-Benz Financial plans to make the system available to all its dealerships that subscribe to ADP by next June.

Loren Anderson, finance manager at one of the first stores to pilot the new program last December, believes it has saved the dealership time and money.

"eValidate has caught problems before we could even call them problems," said Anderson, of Calstar Motors in Glendale, Calif.

"Since we started using eValidate, we have virtually eliminated residual errors along with the contract rewrites and customer call backs that used to result from them," Anderson explained.

Other DSPs scheduled to integrate eValidate with its dealers are Reynolds & Reynolds as well as Arkona.

"Over 70 percent of our business is lease and with all of the manufacturer special programs being offered, contract discrepancies are inevitable," said George Bik, finance and leasing manager at Mercedes-Benz of Encino, Calif. "eValidate confirms contract accuracy or advises of a contract discrepancy in about five seconds."

The new system is available at Mercedes-Benz dealerships in some of the largest markets in the United States, according to the company. Also, Mercedes-Benz Financial claimed it is one of the first luxury captives to launch an integrated contract data validation system.

Stevens said, "eValidate supports our commitment to be the first choice provider of financial services for our dealers. By significantly reducing contract discrepancies and customer re-contracting, dealerships will increase their profitability, operational efficiency and overall customer satisfaction.