WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR A PLAYER LIKE CA CONSUMER FINANCE? 

Every business looks for digital transformation. Personally, my real focus is on transforming the business. IT or digital can only be the drivers of business strategy.

Strictly speaking, the CA Consumer Finance does not represent consumer credits sales. We have three types of distribution. First of all, we are service providers assisting Crédit Agricole banks network with sale of their products, from marketing to cost-recovery. It is not, therefore, a consumer credit product.

The second type is B2C. It is defined as the sale of credits or products to individuals, without the latter appearing before the agency (since CA Consumer Finance has very few agencies).

The third type of distribution is B2B, assisting our partners with the sale of products, provided that partners are not credit sellers. For example, the FNAC sells iPhone to its customers. Uses change as customers do not seek product ownership but rather product access (through rental, for example). Who would have thought just a few years ago that rent-to-buy beddings would exist? Players like La Maison de la Literie offer its customers a mattress for one euro per day. Accordingly, our working methods have been completely shaken up. This is the first challenge we were faced with.

The second challenge is time-to-market. It is not enough to have a range of ideas. What really matters is to have them at the “right time”. A customer at a store wants to buy a sofa that he will then exchange with the seller. He wants to leave with his merchandise within fifteen minutes. The seller does not want to inform him that failure to sale is attributed to “the bank refusing credit”. He may be an “untrustworthy customer”, by putting the seller into a shady situation with further implications. The most suitable solution is to undergo a pre-check point. Today, digital transformation and customer tracking options pave the way towards avoiding such scenarios.

WHAT ARE YOUR LARGEST CURRENT PROJECTS?

Actually,there are quite a few projects. I will go into detail for two of them.

60% of our turnover comes from the sale of cars, a type of sale that becoms more and more complex. With our AgilAuto offer through a rent-to-own option, we provide answers to any question. How do you conduct a third- party sale of a leased vehicle? How do you buy or rent a car from your banker? How can you, after the rental, bring the car home and take it back in three years? This is indeed an end-to-end process, going beyond selling credit. This process has been rolled out everywhere.

Another sector is that of furniture. As an individual, you go to IKEA store to design your kitchen, and a seller displays the prices in fifteen minutes on his tablet. Behind the scenes, however, it is more complicated to meet new ecological and environmental expectations, which raises new issues for us. Are the materials chosen recyclable? How do we replace them in three years? Beyond the sales process, we have to work with our partners on the Goods Management Processes.

WHAT ARE YOU PROJECT LEADERSHIP STRENGTHS?

Humans are the only factor behind transformation. Our first strength relies on male and female team members. It is worth mentioning that digital transformation is developed by humans to serve customer interests. One of the characteristics found to be unique for CA Consumer Finance is the option to go in store to assist the sellers with the introduction of their product in the event things go wrong.

Then, CA Consumer Finance has the ability to integrate elements. We do not develop everything. Using the Palmyra platform from VERMEG, I can carry out the design phase, design the first screens and integrate elements. However, I may need other workers to help me.