Fifty2One looks for outside investment to accelerate website development plans

BROKER website design company Fifty2One, trading as First Leasing Software, is looking for outside investment to accelerate website development in the sector.

The company says that, with the high number of brokers operating with third party systems, the market was worth multi-millions a year and says that additional funding would assist its development-to-market speed and increase its traction in the sector.

Managing director Darren Hargreaves said the company is planning to add a further developer to the team within the next month, but says that the real need is for a much greater number to offer the level of bespoke websites for current broker clients, increase the level of new feature developments to attract more brokers, along with its off-the-shelf One System for brokers that don’t require website customisation.

We are looking for a partner to help us grow and enable us to employ more developers. This would massively reduce the time to respond to functionality requests, website software updates and implement new features that accelerate us beyond the competition. Our current broker clients have helped us grow, providing invaluable feedback that we have acted upon, and who will become our future VIP client for extra priority and support. But with some outside investment from a partner we feel we can attract more brokers to the system, as well as appealing to those brokers using website software that can no longer access the marketing portals and are looking for an out-of-the-box replacement solution. We also believe that we can extend our reach to both dealers and the used car market.

Darren Hargreaves, managing director, Fifty2One

New Fifty2One system update due March

Hargreaves said that while a partner search was on-going, development had been continuing on the platform with a major update due this month (March), which follows on from the CRM upgrade launched in summer last year. Among the Fifty2One system updates are:

• Notifications when enquiries come into the system with a ‘Remind Me Later’ feature
• Notifications on renewals
• Enquiries – open and untouched tracking
• Salesman activity
• Conversions tracking – enquiries / Open quotes / Open orders / Closed deals / Salesman / Teams / Commissions
• Birds-eye view on client section – have all the information on one screen with quick links to other parts of the system
• Automations based on anniversary dates 
• Tasks with types and unlimited number of comments
• Report builder (system data export)
• Message tracking to show email opening or not
• Dealer digital order
• SMS integration with third party APIs
• Implement Car and Driving images (additional fees apply)

Hargreaves added that Fifty2One had positive cashflow irrespective of any future investment. 

“We want to move onto the next stage of our growth. With some outside help we can do this more quickly and bring even more features to the First Leasing Software system, making it more engaging and even smoother than before.”