As most people probably know, Cisco works exclusively with partners. The same applies to us, Cisco Capital. Nevertheless, we keep educating our partners on exactly what our activities entail. After all, financing and technology are two very different fields and most partners have built up relationships with a bank or a traditional lease company. But there are important differences between traditional financing organisations and technology partners that also offer financing options.
Bank or Lease Company?
When it comes to IT financing, banks and traditional lease companies may not be the best option. They may be experts when it comes to money, but not when it comes to technology. And while an independent lease company may have some IT experience, it will probably opt for the largest common denominator because of its independence. The IT lifecycle will therefore progress along a more traditional path instead of meeting the requirements that current digitisation demands.
Bigger Deals, Better Margins
The latter not only affects our partners’ clients, but also our partners themselves, who use our financing services. Those who offer both technology and financing make it possible for partners to incorporate this into their sales cycle at an early stage. This gives them an extra sales tool, which opens up the opportunity for bigger deals. We also take into account the residual value of IT components that need to be replaced. While we may not be the only party to offer this, we do take things one step further than the rest. All of this contributes to improving the margins.
Adapting to Digitisation Requirements
We know the demands that digitisation places on IT and we understand the Total Cost Ownership (“TCO”) of our IT solutions, which helps us give our partners the competitive edge they need. In practice, I’ve found that our partners are willing to use our financing services. But I also realise that for plenty of more traditional partners it is not easy to do so. Nevertheless, also these partners will ultimately be faced with customer demand to transition from on premise IT solutions to more IT consumption based business models. This is a transition our partners can get on board with. But it also begs the question: How do our partners differentiate their offering in this dynamic marketplace? With the help of Cisco and our new Capital offers, they can realise this much better, both technologically and financially.
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