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Managing Cash-flow to Facilitate Business Growth

​Growth often translates into a need for more capital to fuel opportunities. Successful businesses anticipate opportunities and prepare for them. It is therefore important to make sure your finances are in order and you are able to successfully manage your cashflow to facilitate growth.
Pieter Kolkert, CEO, Intuit Technologies

Pieter Kolkert, CEO, Intuit Technologies

Geoff Wright, Dell EMC’s General Manager of Channel ANZ, says that, “Managing cashflow is a complex business. Access to working capital is both a key driver of growth and often difficult to find, which is why we set up our Working Capital Solutions (WCS). We want all of our partners to both grow and prosper in their partnership with Dell EMC.”

We spoke with Intuit Technologies, a Dell Partner who has experienced success with WCS.

ICT reseller Intuit Technologies has been operating out of Tasmania for more than 20 years, with close to 100 employees and three offices in the island state, one in Melbourne and another on the Gold Coast.

The vast majority of the company’s business is in Tasmania, which means that inventory deliveries take a little longer, and this has proved to be an added challenge in cash-flow management.

“Most of our business in Tasmania is with SMEs - 20 to 250 employees - although we do have a number of larger customers,” says CEO Pieter Kolkert. “We’re a conventional product reseller harking back a couple of decades, and like a lot of resellers we’ve been going through the process of migrating into managed services and anything-as-a-service. Business has been growing about 15 per cent year on year.”

“But in Tasmania, it’s a very cyclical situation; we don’t have that underlying core of business that recurs every month. Every month is new business for us.”

Which means that every month there was the need to find new finance and maintain a flexible approach in doing so.

Kolkert describes how they were “facing either a cash-up-front model or a financed model. We didn’t want to go on a cash basis because most of the products we sell go into projects, so what we’re looking for are terms – as big terms as we can get”.

Wright says that “Channel Finance keeps products moving through the supply chain by providing the flexibility to replace open account terms with varying extended repayment term options. More predictable cashflow allows Dell EMC’s network to confidently invest in business growth and efficiency.”

WCS takes advantage of the Channel Finance product offered by Wells Fargo CDF*. In providing their partners with access to this program**, they have enabled their partners to hold enough inventory to meet demand without tying up cashflow. This in turn helps them remain agile and flexible.

Kolkert says that Working Capital Solutions has given his company this flexibility. “The facility is the key ingredient. The line of credit is more adjustable; the terms have been good for us. Wells Fargo CDF gave us 60-day terms which is something we couldn’t get any other way.”

Kolkert is also pleased that the program provides, “governance, rigor, control - all of those things made us into a better business. It’s forced us to be better in managing our relationship with suppliers.”

Crucial to the success of this relationship is industry understanding, Kolkert describes how his relationship with Wells Fargo CDF has developed saying, “we’ve grown to understand each other’s business better and that’s culminated with them having people with the right skills and the right understanding in their business in Australia today, and I’ve got to say today it’s pretty easy going.”

He says he no longer has the pressure of managing lines of credit and the funding arrangements. “I just don’t worry about that any more. If someone comes along and says they’ve got this deal that’s about to go down we just process it and it just happens.

“I can now concentrate on doing business.”


*Wells Fargo CDF are a leading provider of specialised inventory financing solutions and services. CDF delivers when it comes to helping facilitate the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of products across a variety of industries. From powersports, marine, and recreational vehicles, to outdoor lawn & garden, agriculture, technology, and electronic and appliances.

CDF’s team of industry experts have the know-how to create a solution that’s right for you and your growing business.

As one of the world’s most valuable and recognised financial services companies, Wells Fargo has been helping businesses gain greater strength and stability for more than 160 years. With over 40 years’ experience* as a leading local floorplan and channel financer we have the resources and expertise to unlock a winning new combination of solutions and services.

** Subject to Wells Fargo CDF approval and meeting Wells Fargo CDF credit criteria.

© 2017 Wells Fargo International Finance, LLC, Wells Fargo International Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd and Wells Fargo International Finance (New Zealand) Limited. All rights reserved.

Wells Fargo Commercial Distribution Finance is the trade name for certain inventory (floor planning) services of Wells Fargo & Company and its subsidiaries including Wells Fargo International Finance, LLC, Wells Fargo International Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd and Wells Fargo International Finance (New Zealand) Limited (collectively, CDF).

This advertorial does not have any legally binding effect and is not, and shall not be deemed to constitute, an agreement, obligation or commitment of any kind whatsoever on the part of CDF or any of its affiliates.