The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) announced that its 2014 Operations and Technology Excellence Award will go to two companies: BB&T Equipment Finance Corporation and Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, Inc. The winners were selected by a subcommittee of ELFA members and will be showcased during ELFA’s Operations and Technology Conference, Sept. 8-9 at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta, Ga.

“Both BB&T Equipment Finance Corporation and Wells Fargo Equipment Finance took on the difficult challenge of modernizing and transforming legacy business processes and technology to establish a firm foundation for continued growth in an ever-changing business environment,” said Deborah Reuben, Founder of Reuben Creative, LLC, and Committee Chair for the award. “Both winners are inspiring examples of the innovative spirit of the ELFA Operations and Technology Excellence Award. We look forward to hearing stories from both winners at the ELFA Operations & Technology Conference in September.”

“ELFA is pleased to showcase innovative uses of technology in the equipment finance industry,” said William G. Sutton, CAE, ELFA President and CEO. “The best practices demonstrated by BB&T Equipment Finance Corporation and Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, Inc. serve as models on the effective use of technology in our industry, and further demonstrate how ELFA members are ‘Equipping Business for Success.’”

BB&T Equipment Finance Corporation is recognized for their impressive and challenging business reinvention initiative, which included the implementation of a new end-to-end leasing technology platform. More than a system implementation, through this project BB&T, working with Odessa Technologies, Inc., radically changed their entire operation end-to-end to establish a foundation to support new market focus and aggressive growth goals. The project illustrates how technology coupled with creative operational management can serve as a framework for dramatic business transformation.

Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, Inc. is recognized for their outstanding execution of a sophisticated and highly complex initiative to convert and integrate two completely different small-ticket businesses. Each business had different legacy systems and processes, which were integrated onto a single technology platform with minimal disruption. By using creative implementation methods, maintaining high levels of collaboration with business and solution partner International Decisions Systems, Inc., and retooling their project management approach, they implemented an end-to-end solution and achieved record earnings in both businesses during the year the integration took place, exceeding even their own expectations.

The Operations and Technology Excellence Award identifies and recognizes equipment leasing and finance companies that have demonstrated best practices in developing and implementing innovative uses of technology or creative business processes to improve operations, enhance customer interactions, enter new markets and build overall ROI. The program brings the backroom to the foreground, spotlighting the best in the industry as an example for others.

Previous Operations and Technology Excellence Award winners include:

• 2013: TCF Equipment Finance, Inc. and SunPower Corporation
• 2012: LEAF Commercial Capital, Inc. and AIG Commercial Asset Finance
• 2011: First American Equipment Finance and ICON Capital Corporation
• 2010: Winthrop Resources Corporation
• 2009: Key Equipment Finance, PHH Arval
• 2008: Orion First Financial LLC, Trinity Industries Leasing Co.
• 2007: TCF Equipment Finance, California First National Bancorp, and Xerox Capital Services
• 2006: Farm Credit Leasing
• 2005: Styx Capital, Relational LLC
• 2004: Cisco Systems Capital Corporation
• 2003: AgStar Financial Services, National Leasing Group
• 2002: ABB Financial Services, IBM Global Financing, Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation

For information about the 2014 ELFA Operations and Technology Conference, Sept. 8-9 in Atlanta, GA., go to www.elfaonline.org/events/2014/OTC/.