California dreamin': fax server/database helps keep drivers' dreams alive.

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'

The insatiable love affair between Californians and cars is legendary. Imagine yourself in a sporty red convertible, your favorite companion by your side, winding along the rocky facade of shoreline called Highway I....

But let's discuss reality for a minute.

While Californians probably acquire cars more often than do residents of other states, financing an automobile there still requires an exacting, involved process.

Have you ever had to wait hours--sometimes days--for financing approval on that new sporty red convertible?

One company has found a way to reduce this wait time to as little as 20 minutes.

The booming business of cars, and the means to acquire them, has paved the way for hundreds of successful businesses in the Golden State.

One of these is Auto Finance Group, a Sherman Oaks company that processes credit acceptance or denial for more than 600 auto dealerships throughout the state.

A credit operation, Auto Finance Group buys automobile contracts.

The company must notify car dealerships of acceptance or denial in a timely fashion, or let them know when information necessary to process the application is missing.

Because of the volume of applications and number of dealerships involved, Auto Finance recognized the absolute necessity to automate.

In 1989 it hired MIS Consultant Lloyd Zellner (now MIS director) to identify and install the best available PC-based database application.

Zellner chose and customized an application based in Foxpro (Fox Software) but realized, regardless of the sophistication and efficiency of the system, that each credit application was taking between two and 24 hours to be sent back to the dealer.

Harried Office Clerks

Auto Finance's final link--in processing an a|e|aga of 244 credit applications each day--was four stand-alone fax machines and four harried office clerks.

Once the database created a credit memo, sending it back to the dealer became a labor-intensive task subject to logjams at fax machines.

Then, Auto Finance Group learned of a fax server that lets Novell users send and receive documents directly from their personal workstations.

After reviewing OAZ's NetFax Manager, Auto Finance Group decided to buy the system with an additional board to accommodate three telephone lines.

With seamless integration with the database, Auto Finance has reduced average credit-application processing time from a two-hour minimum to 20 minutes.

The productivity gains are not just in returning finalized credit information to dealers, but in automatically notifying dealers when required information is missing.

NetFax Manager consists of a single NetFax board installed on a dedicated fax server that can be any IBM PC or compatible on a Novell LAN, and NetFax Manager software installed under Novell MHS. One NetFax Manager can accommodate up to four phone lines by adding boards.

The current version offers an "embedded-command" feature specifically for developing a custom application such as the Auto Finance Group's.

A company using a PC-based sales database application can now link NetFax Manager capabilities to the database.

NetFax Manager then draws on the database for information such as contact names, address, phone and facsimile numbers, and information on what products and services interest the prospect.

Sales Activity Reports

By using a filter/sort feature of the database and the broadcast capability of NetFax Manager, the user can also automatically send information such as sales-activity reports to other individuals in the company, saving time and reducing clerical costs.

At Auto Finance Group, the embedded-commands feature is used to speed processing of credit applications by returning application/denial information to dealers within minutes (not hours) of the credit decision.

While the user is in the credit-processing application, he touches one keystroke to bring up the NetFax Manager menu. Then he faxes the credit memo directly from the program already up on the screen.

"We've eliminated the need for someone to prepare the memo and a fax cover sheet, walk the fax to a stand-alone machine, wait for the machine to be available, dial the number, and send the fax," says Zellner.

The system's embedded-commands feature draws on the database for key dealer information, as well as information relating to each discrete credit application.

Engagin the filter/sort feature of the database, the user automatically faxes the credit application, with approval or denial, back to the dealer.

Auto Finance Group has also programmed the system to flag incomplete information and automatically notify the dealer--via facsimile--what additional information is required to process the credit application.

Systems-administration functions contribute to improved efficiencies.

The fax server provides a complete log of incoming and outgoing activities.

The office manager or systems administrator can keep track of the transmission status of each fax (succeeded/failed), monitor pending files, identify the name of the user who sent the outgoing fax--all from his workstation.

Manage Queues

A queue-management feature facilitates maximum phone-line usage with a minimum of human intervention.

As evidence, the Auto Finance Group has been able to replace four stand-alone faxes with one NetFax Manager system containing three NetFax boards, even with an excalating amount of facsimile traffic.

The company has realized a 25% savings on telephone costs alone. Auto Finance Group also saves by reducing paper and clerical costs.

In addition to the dollars savings, Auto Finance Group credits the NetFax Manager/Foxpro linkup with speeding up critical communications with his clients by upwards of 85%.

As the company continues a growth pattern that has seen 140 new dealers added in a recent month, it plans to add more NetFax boards to the system to keep the delivery-time record as close to real time as possible.

Which helps Californias keep the dream alive.