Syscap helps VARs unlock £1.7bn support opportunity

Firm's new initiative gives VARs annual support payments up front while customers still pay monthly

Syscap is on a mission to help the channel cash in on what it claims is the lucrative support and maintenance market with its new Support Funder initiative.

The finance firm's new offering pays resellers their annual fee for support deals up front while end users continue to pay on a monthly basis – something it claims is unique in the market.

Resellers have had trouble cashing in on the support market due to customers' reluctance to part with large sums of cash up front, the firm said, but added that its new offering solves that problem.

Several resellers have already signed up to the scheme ahead of its wider launch, and the firm hopes that figure will rise to 30 in the next quarter and 300 by next year.

Syscap pointed to TechMarketView data which claims the support and maintenance market is worth £1.7bn, and its chief executive Philip White said Support Funder will help the channel take its share of the opportunity.

"Most resellers are still struggling to make the most of their capabilities in maintenance and support, and the lack of a suitable funding product has definitely left many of them unable to provide annual support contracts in the best way for their clients," he said.

"Many resellers have told us that they could retain a much higher percentage of their support and maintenance clients if they had the ability to offer financing for the service.

"We think Support Funder can be the key that unlocks profits for resellers in this market."

Nathan Mollett, Syscap's vendor finance sales director, who heads up Support Funder, said he thinks the offering will be most popular in the SMB sector as resellers struggle more to handle high admin workloads associated with monthly billing themselves.

"If [smaller payments] are really important to a customer and they really push hard for this, then – whether it be quarterly or monthly – [resellers] have to do all that admin themselves," he said.

"Doing invoices 12 times a year and making sure everything ties up is a burden, but this removes that burden for them."