An Industry Note: Financing Options from Information Technology Vendors: Addressing the Needs of the Small and Medium Business Market

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"...SMBs often acquire technology addressing immediate business concerns with the least expensive solutions available. Using this ad hoc approach to technology acquisition often results in an unwieldy multi-vendor network that is difficult to manage and upgrade. This approach increases the operational costs of the network, often erasing any short-term savings derived from point product purchases."¹⁰

Raymond Boggs, IDC¹¹, in January 2006.

“The problem is that SMBs usually do not buy technology when they need it but when they have a budget for it. We want to ensure that they have the money to buy the technology.” ¹²

Deepti Dang, Head-Marketing, Commercial and SMB, Personal Systems Group, HP India¹³,in December 2007.

“Leasing enables customers to upgrade or refresh their technology as per business needs or as technology evolves. There is no need to be burdened with legacy equipment that has been paid for with cash.”14 - Gautam Munish, Leasing Country Manager, Cisco Capital India15, in December 2007. Introduction Small and medium businesses (SMBs)16 or small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in economic activity in the world. According to estimates, there were more than 6.4 million SMBs in the US, and almost 5 million SMBs in the UK, Germany, and Canada put together.17...

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10] “Overview of the Cisco Smart Business Roadmap,” www-china.cisco.com, January 2006.
11] IDC provides market intelligence and advisory services for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. As of August 2009, it had more than 1000 analysts monitoring opportunities and trends in over 110 countries.
Source: www.idc.com (Accessed on August 12, 2009)
12] Vinita Gupta, “Financing for SMBs,” www.expresscomputeronline.com, December 31, 2007.
13] HP India, headquartered in Delhi, is in the information technology solutions arena, offering customers personal computing and access devices and imaging and printing solutions.
14] Vinita Gupta, “Financing for SMBs,” www.expresscomputeronline.com, December 31, 2007.
15] Cisco Capital is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems Inc., and was created to provide a suite of financial services to its customers.
16] A business with 100 or fewer employees was generally considered small, while one with 100-999 employees was considered to be medium-sized.
17] AMI-Partners, “Small and Medium Business (SMB) Information and Communication Technology Environment: Trends and Opportunities for Vendors and Partners,” www.ami-partners.com, August 2008.