Invigors launch specialist digital implementation business

AFC met with three members of the Invigors team – Francois Roth, Nick Feasey and Paul Johnson Ferguson – who were telling us why they were launching Invigors Digital. Their purpose is to create a dedicated implementation service to complement their existing business whose advisory work has perhaps focused more on system selection up-to-now. Their value-add over the implementation giants who already provide this service for the wider financial services industry is Invigors in-depth understanding of the specifics of asset finance.

Is this market knowledge important? Its undoubtedly the case that most tech solutions currently offered to the asset finance market (with the exception of the dedicated platform providers we all know) have not been designed specifically for asset finance. So having an implementation team who really gets which bits are going to add the most value for an asset finance business seems likely to prove pretty valuable.

Invigors also told us that the tech resource inside many asset finance businesses is changing, with fewer in-house staff able to handle this work without external help. Invigors can help fill the gap, and bring a wide network of experienced practitioners with them to bring any additional required people power to a project.

Its also a natural next-step for a business which is already helping with system selection.

But for us there is a significant additional value Invigors will bring. Its their understanding of the likely future direction of asset finance – something which is surely important throughout the selection and implementation process. At present AFC research suggests that many lenders are re-focussing on driving down cost-to-serve to improve margins which have come under extreme pressure recently. Using tech to deliver this is something that the industry really gets.

What is less clear to many is how to prepare for and to start to develop the tech capabilities which will enable their businesses to play in next generation areas like pay per use and the circular economy business models which are already the focus of leading asset finance providers like DLL but which are not yet in widespread use. This is an area which is driven by increasing focus on sustainability, which may turn out to be just a niche offering, and is an area which Invigors really gets.

Or it may be in providing a clearer vision of current and future application of new technologies like machine learning to predict risk, for example; and generational AI in managing the customer which offer so much in the long term.

This sort of holistic understanding seems likely to give the new business a significant edge over the generalists which whom they are seeking to compete, and hopefully one which will trump the usual tendency for big lenders to select the titan brands just because they are big.