Wolters Kluwer presented an online survey to more than 2,000 automotive dealer, lender and service provider professionals during May, and according to the survey results, the greatest number of respondents had implemented automated workflows into portfolio analysis (25%), followed by payment processing (21%) and reconciliation (17%).

However, only 26% of lender executives said they're processing data from digital solutions to enable automation for business functions and workflows, and another 43% said they were unsure if that was taking place. Despite the numbers, 75% said it's either somewhat or very important to create a fully compliant digital strategy that automates all workflows and back-office processes. What’s concerning is that 23% of executives said they're either not confident that they can achieve this, or they are not sure.

Achieving a fully digital finance experience is still a challenge for many auto finance companies, with 23% saying they still require greater compliance and adherence to federal regulations to achieve a fully digital experience. Another 20% said they still need to create a more seamless transaction experience, followed by a more consistent funding process (16%), and securitization and asset monetization (15%).

That is also important because less than 8% of executives said they are actually fully digital, and roughly a quarter of lender executives surveyed (26%) said at least half of their loan documents are still paper-based. Furthermore, 38% of lender executives said they are still using physical mail to share loan documents with customers, while 35% said they are utilizing email.

“By now it is clear that professionals throughout the automotive and auto finance value chain understand the importance of having a digital presence, but many still find a lot of challenges in deploying a fully digital ecosystem for the entire process,” said Tim Yalich, Head of Auto Strategy for Wolters Kluwer.

“Our latest survey provides a clearer picture of not only the additional education needed to build digital strategies for automotive, but also the need for deploying the right resources that will complement customer facing digital experiences with back-office automated processes.”