Press
De Lage Landen selects Sword Apak to implement Commercial Finance Technology System
De Lage Landen has chosen Sword Apak to support its commercial finance
technology requirements by implementing ‘WFS’, the market leading stock-funding
solution for Europe. The new system is now running live, replacing the incumbent
third party software in just three months.
With offices and joint ventures in more than 30 countries worldwide, De Lage
Landen is a global provider of high quality, asset-based financing solutions. The
company’s expertise includes inventory finance and floorplanning. A sophisticated
wholesale and inventory finance application was needed to fully automate De Lage
Landen’s stock funding operations across specialized industries, which include food & agriculture, office equipment & technology, materials handling & construction,
healthcare, and transportation.
Peter Johnstone, VP and General Manager of Commercial Finance for Europe at
De Lage Landen is delighted with Sword Apak’s system, which he views as the
platform for providing a pan European, ‘Commercial Finance’ service:
“De Lage Landen required a specialized solution with multi-national functionality
that would allow us to support local dealers’ specific country requirements for
floor-planning and inventory finance throughout Europe. ‘WFS’ matched our
needs exactly and was implemented smoothly by Sword Apak’s experienced
financial systems team. The new software is capable of facilitating high volume
unit processing, and significantly reduces the overhead of providing a dealer stock
funding service. WFS is already running live at De Lage Landen in the UK, and we
have plans to roll the system out to Germany and Spain by the end of this year”.
Tony Allen, Business Unit Director at Sword Apak, sees the latest WFS installation as further evidence of the growing requirement for progressive, global stock-finance applications: “Sword Apak now has live operations in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and the Republic of Ireland, as well as the UK. We are of course very pleased to support De Lage Landen’s European business aspirations in commercial finance, helping the company to provide a multi-national inventory finance service by supporting local dealer currencies and languages in multiple countries”.
WFS is provided to De Lage Landen on an ASP basis (Application Service Provision) or bureau basis. Many of Sword Apak’s clients choose to implement the system using this delivery model because of the minimal capital outlay required, which allows finance providers to concentrate on their core business competencies.
Notes to Editors:
About Sword Apak
With over 25 years’ experience of providing specialist financial systems, Sword Apak has become a market leader in the asset based finance and retail banking sectors. Our superior wholesale finance systems are used by major financial institutions, processing over €15 billion worth of direct debits and credits through our ASP based systems each year. Sword Apak is also renowned for its expertise in developing and integrating core banking technology.
Sword Apak is a member of the SWORD Group which has offices in 21 countries.
For further information please contact:
Mark Johnson - Tel: + 44 (0) 1454 871000,
Email: mark.johnson@apakgroup.com
For more information visit: www.sword-apak.com
About Sword Group
Sword Group delivers high value business applications globally to the world’s
largest companies. With operations in 37 countries, Sword today employs over
2000 people and in fiscal year ending December 2007 generated €179m in
consolidated revenue.
A global leader in the delivery of Governance, Risk and Compliance Management solutions, Sword’s skills, infrastructure and experience help our customers across regulated industries improve performance, increase efficiencies and maximise return on investment.
Our flexible delivery options, including On Demand, Software as a Service (SaaS) and ASP, combined with our extensive industry expertise enables Sword to support our customers across insurance & healthcare, energy, banking & finance, telecoms, utilities, engineering & construction and government.
For more information visit our website: www.sword-group.com
Press Contact
Mark Johnson
Sword Apak
e mark.johnson@apakgroup.com
t + 44 (0) 1454 871000
About De Lage Landen International B.V.
De Lage Landen is a global provider of high-quality asset-based financing products. The company, headquartered in Eindhoven (the Netherlands), is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dutch Rabobank Group, which is Triple-A rated by the major rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s.
With offices and joint ventures in more than 30 countries worldwide, De Lage
Landen specializes in asset financing and vendor finance programs on a worldwide
scale. The global offering also includes an array of commercial finance solutions.
The company focuses on the following industries: Food & Agriculture, Healthcare,
Office Equipment, Technology Finance, Financial Institutions, Trucks & Trailers and
Materials Handling. De Lage Landen also offers private-label leasing programs for
the Banking industry, and delivers a broad range of financial services to leasing
organizations and non-banking financial institutions.
In the Netherlands, De Lage Landen offers a broad range of financing products, both through local Rabobanks and directly to the market. These products include Equipment Leasing, Car and Commercial Vehicle Leasing, ICT Leasing, Consumer Finance and Trade Finance.
Athlon Car Lease International became part of De Lage Landen Group in 2006. Athlon Car Lease International is an international provider of operational car leasing, active in six European countries.
In 2007 De Lage Landen grew its net profit to €234 million ($321 million) and its lease portfolio to €20.7 billion ($30.5 billion). By year end 2007, De Lage Landen had 4,735 employees.
For more information, please visit our website: www.delagelanden.com
Press Contact
Mark Johnson
Sword Apak
e mark.johnson@apakgroup.com
t + 44 (0) 1454 871000