In a recent article with Business Money, our Global Head of Product, Andrea Cole, reports on the company’s latest annual LendScape Conference, held in London on 25 April.
On 25 April, HPD hosted its annual LendScape Conference, Growth Factors, in London. This was an opportunity to bring staff, clients and industry experts together to discuss the future of our industry, how it should be transformed and to generate a dialogue that can crystallise growth opportunities.
The aim was to create an environment in which we could talk openly with clients and industry peers who often think very differently and consider issues from different perspectives so that together we can achieve a common goal: making the asset-based finance industry stronger. It is not simply our clients’ responsibility to sell a better product, it is also our duty to help them deliver a better experience to their customers.
We realise there is much we can learn from each other by working collaboratively, evolving our approach to lending and broadening product horizons. After all, business is as much about human interaction as it is about commercial achievement and it is important to remember that the LendScape software is designed for the benefit of the people that actually use it.
A panel in progress at the LendScape Conference 2019
This year’s conference stood out from those we have previously held due to the introduction of the LendScape Lab, a breakout space where clients, prospective clients, technology partners and wider industry professionals were given the opportunity to visualise and test the latest innovations. This allowed them to try out and consider how our products met their needs, to highlight any features that they would like to see further enhanced or developed, and to give general feedback on their experience.
For our product, sales and client facing teams, the opportunity to hear from clients about what really matters to them was invaluable while the informal setting facilitated these conversations.
Overall, the LendScape Lab initiative resulted in a broad range of conversations with clients and prospective clients about the support our product team can give them as they look to further improve and advance the services they provide.
Over the past few years, Lendscape has adopted a significant shift in approach. We have taken time to reflect and consider the user, the individual that uses our solution, and not just in terms of “does it look nice?” but also “is it working in practice?” We have evolved our strategy to focus on delivering a high quality user experience while broadening our product offering and seeking to harness new emerging technologies.
Our development teams keep customers at the heart of their research and development work as they seek to evolve and improve our existing product. One example is HPD’s most recent collaboration with open banking payment provider fire.com, a partnership set to broaden our product offering. Engaging in these product development dialogues with some of the world’s leading banks, such as those enabled by the conference, is vital to driving our innovation and ensuring it matches our clients’ requirements.
We recognise we are in a unique position to foster and develop a community of like-minded professionals, from a variety of backgrounds, offering a range of perspectives, but all with a common goal. This is to help ensure that asset based finance retains its position as a worldclass sector offering its financial institution clients solutions that are finely attuned to their needs, and can help play a vital role in fostering both their growth and business success as well as that of their customers.