CRN roundtable: The future of IT financing and leasing

Nine top VARs debated how IT financing can evolve to become more strategic to their business in this GE Capital-commissioned roundtable

Earlier this summer, nine leading UK resellers and systems integrators joined CRN and GE Capital to discuss the future of IT leasing and financing in the channel.

As oil baron John Paul Getty once said, “If it appreciates, buy it; if it depreciates, lease it”. But until now, financing has not been as fully embraced in the IT industry as elsewhere, with penetration rates lagging below ten per cent.

GE Capital used this CRN roundtable to gauge how finance providers like them can become more strategic to the channel in an era where software, services and cloud are becoming more central. Their ability to be more creative and flexible will be vital, delegates agreed.

“What I’m looking for is a creative offering, something that is net-new to take to the market, as opposed to something that is going bring a sale in earlier,” MTI's senior vice president of sales, Ian Parslow, said on the day.

Watch this brief summary video filmed directly after the event featuring interviews with Parslow, Richard Archer of Nuvenn, Peter West of Portal, Colin Blumenthal of Complete I.T., Andrew Skipsey of Comms21 and Chris Squires of FOS.net.

Also present on the day were Mike Simmonds of Axial Systems, John Vickers of DTP Group, Paul Barlow of Servium and GE Capital’s Andy Lewis, Jeff Jones and Jason Skidmore.