CRN roundtable: IT finance as a strategic sales tool

CRN sits down with GE Capital and four of the UK's leading VARs and SIs to talk about how finance can boost channel order books in times of straitened IT budgets

In this GE Capital-commissioned roundtable, CRN deputy editor Doug Woodburn facilitates a debate between GE Capital and four of the UK's leading VARs and SIs about the changing face of IT finance.

GE Capital's James Ryan and Jason Skidmore are joined by Mark Starkey, UK commercial director at Logicalis, Ian Duffield, head of legal and compliance at Equanet, Peter Deacon, director of technology and strategy at Calyx and Richard Archer, sales director at Redstone.

Although UK end-user comfort levels for finance may not be as high as in some other countries, straitened capital budgets are forcing them to look beyond their own four walls to fund much-needed tech refreshes. But resellers must lean on both vendors and IT finance providers to capitalise, the participants agreed.