Bank of Scotland Dealer Finance upgrades its support to dealers with new website

Bank of Scotland Dealer Finance has upgraded and extended its dealer support website www.dashboard.co.uk to provide Bank of Scotland Dealer Finance dealerships with access to a far greater level of information.

For supporting dealers, the new portal still brings into one location the Bank's wholesale and retail point of sale finance systems, the stock locator facility and a secure email function, but further vital tools for all dealers have also been added. This includes comprehensive business support information to help them better cope with reduced margins, legislation and the threat from direct lenders, with online advice ranging from acquiring and managing customers to flexible funding options.

The site also details all Bank of Scotland Dealer Finance F&I products in a no-nonsense guide that's clear and straightforward for both dealers and consumers. And for the first time, dealership customers will also be able to use the site to request assistance with queries about their finance agreement.

Senior director, Paul Jordan explains the thinking behind the changes, which have been developed over the past 18 months: "Dashboard was originally launched in 2002 purely as a portal to help dealers access our products and services and was extremely successful in facilitating this. But we wanted to extend its functionality to allow us to communicate more with our supporting dealers and provide useful information to other site visitors too."

Jordan believes the fact that the site is now fulfils its goal of becoming a useful resource for those looking to find out more about point of sale finance, for both dealers and their customers, and will be a key tool in helping combat the direct lending threat.

He adds: "There's a lot of myth and misconception about point of sale finance out there, but little concrete and objective information available. Our aim is to use Dashboard as a developing, evolving communication channel to improve this situation.

"It's just one of the many ways we're looking to ensure that dealerships are able to successfully market such products and increase their revenues."

www.dashboard.co.uk went live on 1 August 2006.

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