LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. -

Thanks to technology, today people look for speed and efficiency in everything they do more than ever before — and the car buying process is no exception.

Carrying the stigma of being time-consuming, even called “painful” by customers, how can dealers and lenders make the process of purchasing a car faster, more efficient and a better experience for today’s shopper? The answer could be found in the use of eContracting technology.  eContracting, or electronic contracting — which can now be conveniently conducted using iPads/tablets in Wi-Fi connected showrooms — creates efficiencies in the F&I process and expands the possibilities of increased profitability, in both the short term and long term.

According J.D. Power’s 2015 U.S. Dealer Financing Satisfaction study, more than half of surveyed dealers indicate faster funding as the main reason they use eContracting. Additionally, the study found that when dealers use lender-provided eContracting, their overall satisfaction averages 913 on a 1,000-point scale, compared with 856 when lenders don’t provide eContracting. As critical aspects of the automotive retail workflow evolve with technology, dealerships and the lenders they do business with are beginning to see these efficiencies come to life.

Faster contract funding is a perfect example: Long the domain of the traditional sales and lending approach, today there's strong evidence that the shift to eContracting is accelerating, as dealers and lenders discover its effectiveness. In fact, we have seen a consistently steady increase in eContracting activity year-over-year, and nearly a 20 percent jump since 2014 alone. Dealers aren’t looking back, and neither are lenders: According to Dealertrack surveys, 98 percent of dealer personnel using electronic contracting plan to continue to use the software, and 93 percent would recommend eContracting to their peers. On the lender side, there’s been a healthy increase in electronic contracting adoption, with 20 lenders already on the program, and more planning to support the workflow in the near-term. With key findings from the J.D. Power survey that found lenders can expect on average a 39 percent increase from the dealers with whom they do business – eContracting is no longer the chicken-or-egg scenario it once was.

Not surprising, it has been reported by industry media that 80 percent of all U.S. dealerships will adopt eContracting within five years. And the reason is simple.

The benefits of eContracting are game-changing:

• It speeds up the process of contracting from days to hours. eContracting can help make funding possible within two to three hours. Dealertrack surveys also show that contract processing turnaround times ranked fourth in importance by dealers when choosing a lender partner.

• It improves accuracy. The process of eContracting includes verification engine drivers that catch errors beforehand, so contracting is fast and efficient. Often in the manual process, at best these errors slow the process down while the dealer looks to fix what’s wrong or missing, and at worst are caught too late and lead to recontracting.

• Mobile review and signing functionality takes efficiency and convenience to the next level.  With an iPad or Android tablet, the Dealertrack mobile app and Wi-Fi in the showroom, dealers and customers can review and sign contracts anywhere in the showroom they are most comfortable. The contract appears in full form on the device, eliminating the need for forced print review, and signing is easy – dealers and customers sign once, then tap to apply their signatures directly in the form where required.

This movement toward a technology-enabled, mobile and flexible process brings added convenience to a dealership’s workflow. eContracting is a great example of the technology enhancements that are immensely improving the overall buyer experience, so critical to dealers’ retail process and business success. The surge in adoption of eContracting demonstrates the point of good technology: to simplify and evolve the act of buying and selling cars into an efficient, profitable and consumer-friendly experience. For Dealertrack, it’s another solution-based catalyst we offer to help transform the automotive retail experience.

Michael Collins is senior vice president, lender and F&I solutions for Dealertrack Technologies. In this role, Collins has executive responsibility and oversight for the strategic planning & execution of software and transaction channel services to automotive dealers across the U.S. in the area of finance and insurance as well as a variety of showroom and sales software solutions. This includes Dealertrack’s credit application and aftermarket networks, which are the largest in the industry, connecting franchised and independent automotive dealers to more than 1,500 finance and other strategic partners. Collins is on tap to be one of the keynote speakers during the SubPrime Forum at Used Car Week, which runs on Nov.16-20 at the Phoenician in Scottsdale, Ariz.