Several resellers have welcomed Westcon Group’s plans to offer financing to channel partners across hardware, software and services. The distributor’s chief finance and operations officer Asia-Pacific, David Corcoran, said the aim of Westcon Group Capital was to assist resellers to close customer opportunities.
“It’s very opportunistic that we’re launching this now – it wasn’t prompted by the economic climate. But the more we saw happening in the market, we knew this would have a high profile when it hits the ground. It’s not easy to get this up and running,” he said.
“In the market at the moment, capital is everything, and credit is everything. And it’s getting stretched left, right and centre. Every other call I receive is asking for extra credit for an opportunity, or our customers have an end customer that’s stretching them for credit.”
Westcon Capital financing is open to everyone who trades with the distributor and registers. The distributor will finance businesses for up to $40,000 without credit information, and provide automatic credit of $250,000 to education customers, and unlimited automatic credit for government agencies. Corcoran said there was no limit on the amount of finance available.
“The end-user will ultimately decide on renting or leasing the equipment, and the cash will flow between the customer and reseller and then from the reseller to us,” he said. “In some instances, the reseller may decide the money comes straight to us, so it doesn’t affect their accounts.”
Several resellers agreed financing was a way to get customers over the line, and open up broader opportunities. Security specialist, Loop Technology, deals with Westcon for McAfee and Check Point products.
Managing director, Adam Davenport, expressed interest in the distributor’s financing program.
“We’re enthusiastic about anything that makes the decision to buy easier for customers, more attractive,” he said. “Historically, we’ve found the larger corporates and government haven’t been as interested in financing options, but SMB and mid-sized companies in tough times would be the sweet spot.
“I see this as a sensible value-add for a distributor to offer.”
Principal of SMB voice and data integrator Milnsbridge, Adrian Weir, said at least half of all customer deals signed over $20,000 were done using financing. The company uses a third-party finance broker as well as vendor offerings.
