BATON ROUGE, La. — AppOne has partnered with AmeriCredit to expand the special finance company's reach to independent dealers, executives announced this morning. Through the alliance, AmeriCredit has the ability to receive credit applications from more than 850 independent dealers from AppOne's growing network.

"AppOne's growing dealer base will be a great resource for AmeriCredit as we increase the amount of business we do with independent auto dealers," said Kyle Birch, AmeriCredit's executive vice president of dealer services. "AmeriCredit puts a strong emphasis on risk management, which is one of AppOne's specialties. As part of our strategy, we sought an independent dealer platform with risk management initiatives that would complement ours."

Independent dealers can access AppOne's loan origination platform via the Web. Executives pointed out that elements of the platform include DealerOne, a dealer underwriting system; RECON, a dealer scoring system; and DMSOne, a software management system for independent dealers.

"Through the alliance, our dealers will be able to provide their customers with additional financing options available through AmeriCredit, a leading independent auto lender in the United States and Canada," said Lee Domingue, chief executive officer of AppOne. "Having access to a major player like AmeriCredit helps dealers sell more cars to a wider spectrum of consumers and increase their own profitability."

AmeriCredit is joining other financial institutions in AppOne's system, such as Capital One, Wells Fargo Auto Finance, Crescent Bank & Trust and Trustmark National Bank.

Domingue said AppOne current operates in approximately 20 states, but expects the company to be offering its services to 48 states by the end of 2007.

"Our long-term goal is to have a national footprint, and signs point to us being able to hit that projection even earlier than we at first anticipated," he said, commenting on the company's recent growth.

"But, having said that, all along we've approached our expansion plans very methodically," Domingue added. "When we began to grow in 2001, even back then we wanted to be more like a diesel and not a Porsche turbo that ends up blowing up because we grew too fast and didn't see some of the pitfalls in our business model."

AppOne executives also noted that they are holding a Dealer Bootcamp, which is scheduled for Thursdays and is run through the company's Web site at www.appone.net.

"The Dealer Bootcamp is an example of our commitment to educating those within our network of dealers. This training offers participating independent auto dealers a tool for differentiating themselves from the competition by offering car buyers a wider variety of financial products," Domingue concluded.

Richard Greene, AR NewsMagazine editor, contributed to this report.