FinSimple Electrification Dashboard
Overview:
Ford is rolling out electric vehicles — offering commercial customers EV charging solutions for home usage. Ford Credit is supporting this initiative by providing customers the ability to finance this equipment and installation through a digital dashoard: the FinSimple Electrictrification dashbaord.
Opportunity:
With an EV Depot Charging market size of 600 by 2022, growing to 1600 in 2025— Ford Credit needs to deliver a favorable financing experience to be successful in the EV Market and support the one-stop-shop Ford Pro strategy.
Potential Market Size: By 2025, Ford has forecasted the need to support around 1600 charging depots a year. This MVP is being conducted because we see this potential market opportunity and want to learn more about this customer segment and lending experience.
Objective: Support the roll out of electric vehicle efforts with relevant digital products
Empathize & Discovery
Create research guide to conduct user interviews:
Synthesize | Identify key findings | Validate assumptions
Determine unknowns related to non-vehicle financing and stakeholders associated within this areas
Conduct discovery with key stakeholders
Establish risks and dependencies
Research Outline
How might We Support commercial customers with financing charging needs as they electrify their fleets?
Assumptions
People are looking for a partner because the charging space is so new; are they are willing to finance with Ford Credit because we are a partner and can help educate?
Objectives
First, we want to know how battery electric vehicles (BEV) play a part in the customers business. Second, we want to know if they have electric vehicles (EV) and if they do, what issues do they have? If they don't, what are they expecting?
Research Plan:
Identify 5-8 businesses who already have charging stations in place.
Criterias:
Doesn’t have to be Ford
Mid/small business
1 large business
Key Findings
Electrification Performance
Finding: Commercial customers are most interested in understanding electric vehicle capabilities and performance. They want to know EV’s will help them run their business
Recommend: To best engage with customers, identify opportunities to share information on how electric vehicles will perform in a commercial setting.
Range anxiety:
Finding: Commercial customers interested in EV’s are not worried about range limitations. They have already analyzed their routes and determined EV’s will help their business.
Recommend: There are opportunities to educate commercial customers on cost savings of electrification for fleets.
Financing:
Finding: Commercial customers view charging costs as a fixed asset. In face, most assume they will pay cash for charging infrastructure.
Recommend: Provide customized, flexible electrification packages which differentiates Ford Credit finance from other finance source. Conceptually, they believe electric vehicles will be of great benefit. Practically, they want to see it before they buy it. Electric service vehicles have not yet hit the market, and commercial customers want to experience the technology first hand before
Recommend: To best engage with customers, identify opportunities to share information on how electric vehicles will perform in a commercial setting.
Identified 3 Primary Types of Business
Companies that currently own EV fleet vehicle
Companies that do not have an EV fleet, but are open to/looking into it
Hertz/DTE/Consumers
Companies with company vehicles that lease Dealerships
3. Entities that may not have EV vehicles but their customers do, such as: Airports, State and Local Gov, EV Auto Repair shops, Gym, Grocery Store, Library, Book Stores, estaurants, Banks, Gas Stations, Malls, and Shopping centers.
Synthesis of User Interviews
Legend:
Green: Yes
Red: No
Define
A persona aids in identifying what we need to launch an MVP and highlight the unknown(s)
User Persona
Key Features | Commercial customers will have the ability to manage their loans by:
Login
View account balance
Make a payment
Request a withdrawal from their loan
Review transaction history
Manage bank info
Sketch
Mid-Fidelity
Toggling with the layout and Ford’s design system
Ideation
Customer Facing Designs:
After authentication, customers will land on their account dashboard. They will be able to view their account details, credit and statement overviews as well as Request Funds, Make a Payment, View Current Invoice, and View Invoice History
Request Funds, a depot charging customer will input the purpose of the request, the total amount requested, and supporting documentation(vendor invoice or similar document) for the request. All fields will be required to proceed. The depot charging customer will have the ability to review their request and make edits before submitting.
Once submitted, the customer will receive a notice on the screen that the request has successfully been sent to Ford Credit. All customers participating in the depot charging financing pilot will be enrolled in autopay.
If a customer would like to make a payment in addition to their scheduled autopayment, they may be do so by submitting the amount of the supplementary payment.
The depot charging customer will have the ability to review their payment and make edits before submitting. Once submitted, the customer will receive a notice on the screen that the payment has successfully been sent to Ford Credit.
Ford’s Processing Facing Designs:
Request Approval Dashboard
When a customer takes an action to request funds or make a payment, an email notification will be sent to the Commercial Ops (CO) generic inbox . CO will log into the Request Approval Portal to view the customer request. Once the request is approved, a notification will be sent to the Processing Team to complete the request in the DF system.
Request Processing Dashboard
Once a customer's request for funds or make a payment is approved, the request will appear in the Request Processing Dashboard. The Commercial Operations team will receive a notification of a new request, and be able to log into the Request Processing Dashboard. They will complete the request in DF, and then mark the transaction as complete.
