National Leasing launched the third and final phase of its new core system, a multi-year, in-house project.

“We knew building our own, completely customized core leasing system from scratch would be a significant feat – something other companies wouldn’t consider attempting,” says Arthur Anhalt, Vice President, IT, National Leasing. “But thanks to the smart, creative minds and innovation-focused culture at National Leasing, we were able to deliver a state-of-the-art new system that will truly benefit our customers and employees into the future.”

The project, internally coined as FELIX, kicked off over five years ago with the mission to build something tailored to the company’s processes and streamline internal systems to improve efficiency.

The scope of the project was incredibly complex, which prompted National Leasing’s team to take an Agile Development approach from early on.

“The Agile approach has helped us work together to build a large software system in smaller pieces, one iteration at a time,” says Todd Neil, Manager, Business Technology, National Leasing. “It’s worked really well for us, because we’re able to get valuable feedback from stakeholders and improve the quality of the system as we go. We still work from an overall plan, but this approach allows us to pivot and adapt as we come across unforeseen obstacles, which helps us produce the right software system for our business in the end.”

The Agile approach proved to be a good fit as the team conquered each milestone and continued to see successes through to the final phase.

“This latest phase of our new system will bring quicker turnaround times for our customers and a simplified user experience for our broker partners,” says Arthur. “Its enhanced framework also provides the opportunity for future updates, including more self-serve technology options for our customers.”

In true National Leasing fashion, employees celebrated the system launch all week with a staff lunch, cupcakes, Thankful Thursday activities and Booster Juice.

 “This wasn’t just an IT project,” says Arthur. “It was a business project. Throughout the years, every department and every part of our business have been involved in ensuring the project’s success. From business leads analyzing processes to create synergies to subject matter experts providing valuable feedback, this project was a great achievement thanks to everyone behind it.”

The final phase of this core system replacement represents the end of an era for National Leasing, but also the beginning of new ventures that Arthur is eager to see take shape.

“If our team is capable of pulling off a project of this magnitude, I can’t wait to be part of the cutting-edge ideas they’ll take on next.”

National Leasing, Canada’s largest and longest-running equipment financing company, currently helps over 65,000 Canadian businesses secure the equipment they need to help their business grow. We offer a full range of financing services to commercial, agriculture, construction, transportation, forestry, health care, golf and turf equipment sellers. Our 60 sales agents and a broker network across Canada are supported from our head office in Winnipeg, Manitoba.