Automotive Business Magazine – Q2 2026 – Digital edition - Magazine - Page 17
INT ERVIEW
SBS AND VERO TECHNOLOGIES
Encouraging the
rest of the ecosystem
to open up and allow
those data flows is a
job that we still have
to do as the software
providers, to bring
the industry up to the
modern day”
them a very easy to navigate, intuitive
suite of self-service tools to allow them
to manage their line of credit more
efficiently.”
The SBS and Vero integration is not
just about dealers. Vero Technologies’
platform was designed to manage
the whole financing process, lenders
included.
Mizzi says: “We have built what we
call an ‘operations management system’
for wholesale and asset financing.
We provide what is very much a
differentiated solution in the market.
“It supports the entire lending lifecycle,
including interfaces for all the different
counterparties that have a role in this
value chain.
“To accomplish that, it's not that we've
built everything around the sun, but
rather we’ve
e’ve integrated with more
than
an 40 different third-party
applications.”
pplications.”
Playing catch-up
Forr a long time, the
automotive
otive sector had a
reputation
ation for being behind
the times.
es. The past few years
have seen
een vast improvements
sector-wide.
r-wide.
Mizzi says: “If you go back
as recent
ecent as six years ago, a
lenderr was forced to rely on a
variety
y of disparate systems
to manage
age their dayto-day
o-day operations.
You need
eed a loan
management
gement
JOHN MIZZI
system,
you need a customer relationship
management (CRM) tool, you need
a business intelligence (BI) tool, and
inevitably there were a lot of gaps where
people simply defaulted to using Excel.
“What we've tried to do is build a
unified front end. Rather than having a
frontline risk manager need to jump in
and out of six or seven different business
applications to do their job, they have a
one-stop shop with all of the data, tools,
analytics, workflow, and decisioning
systems in one place.”
The tides of change in the automotive
retail sector have been slower on this side
of the Atlantic, compared with the US.
Powell explains: “We extensively
integrate with dealer management
systems here, which has completely
revolutionised the flow of data around
the vehicle funding process.
“It's already happened in the US, so it
may be 15-year-old technology.
“Encouraging the rest of the ecosystem
to open up and allow those data flows
is a job that we still have to do as the
software providers, to bring the industry
up to the modern day.”
Smaller dealers, in particular, stand to
gain a lot through these integrations and
advancements. While large groups often
have dedicated staff for each area of
the business, staff at independents and
smaller franchised dealers are typically
required to get stuck into all areas of
operations.
Powell continues: “The benefits of
what Vero brings are probably more
applicable to the smaller dealers. T
The
large corporate groups tend to
t be
lower-tech. The experience is
more important for the smaller
sm
dealers, they're looking at their
th
portfolios, they may be loading
used vehicles in a more manual
m
fashion.”
Mizzi agrees: “Larger dealers
deale
are staffed to operate a little
litt
bit in the archaic age, where
wh
they have a controller, they
have a general manager, they
th
have buyers and folks that
th
sit in the back office to
t
handle documentation
document
and paperwork.
paperwo
The benefit is
multiplied for
fo
the smaller
sm
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