- Mike Henderson, spokesperson for CoreTech Leasing, says:
With the exponential
adoption of cloud services, IT procurement and other data center decision
makers need to promote agility and flexibility to perform in this fast-paced and
highly competitive market. Harvard
Business Review author, Rita
Gunther McGrath, suggests that in the new
economic climate, decision makers should focus on positioning companies to
remain flexible and agile, shortening those decision cycles in order to position
themselves competitively. Technology and equipment leasing is a
strategically advantageous financial option leveraged at enterprises to provide
key elements of this flexibility and quick decision making necessary to thrive
in the data center market.
Leasing is strategic financially
because it provides a monthly expense versus a total cost purchase. This means
leasing beneficially conserves cash reserves, keeps bank lines of credit open
for short-term use, and cuts the out of pocket costs for the enterprise’s
technology upgrades while still enabling new projects on the budget. These combined financial strategies allow for
flexibility and quick decision making, necessities in the current fast-paced
market. Additional strategic advantages are that procurement departments can
proceed with projects outside the company’s current budget or move future
projects forward in anticipation of additional budget approval in an upcoming
period—all the while reducing the risk of ownership.
As regards to
the strategic financial benefits of leasing, we spoke with Doug Doerfler, Chief
Financial Officer at Stinson, Morrison and Hecker LLP a highly regarded,
national law firm with more than 300 attorneys and 375 support staff located in
9 office locations throughout the US. “It’s about cash flow. With leasing, there are no large outflows of
cash during the year; leasing allows us to keep the payment stream/cash outflow
steady.” When Stinson looked into
leasing options, Doerfler continues: “Bank
financing was more expensive and limited our firm’s ability to draw on our line
of credit. Vendor financing was extremely cumbersome and the terms were less
than ideal.” Stinson selected an independent
lessor on the market, [now] CoreTech
Leasing.
From an equipment point of
view, leasing offers an avenue to provide companies with top-of-the line and
current technology at a fraction of the purchase price, can provide for 100%
financing plus services (not just hardware) and frees staff from the burden of
disposing of outdated equipment all the while ensuring access to the most current IT tools
and eliminating higher maintenance costs for older equipment. Doug
affirms that advantage: “The ability to selectively choose which items to
return, keep or extend the lease are flexible benefits for Stinson. We also do not dissipate valuable staff hours
to find buyers for equipment that is no longer needed.”
With the fast-paced growth
and rapid changes in IT equipment procurement, leveraging leasing can provide
the flexibility and agility to stay ahead of pace. If your enterprise decides to leverage leasing in order to optimize
these advantages and flexibility, you will want to find the best of breed amongst
competing lessors in the space as well as the best fit for your enterprises’s
unique needs. You will be in a long term
relationship with your lessor; take the time to find that lessor who can be an
expert resource for your team throughout the lifecycle of the lease.
Make sure
your lessor is best of breed, that they will hand transparent tools to you to
understand your Master Lease Agreement, will show upfront the Total Cost of
Ownership of the MLA, and will do so with the actual language and terminology
of the MLA. The true benefits of a lease
structure are not determined by the glitter of the lowest lease rate factor,
but viewed as a composite whole.
Mike Henderson is Regional Manager of the Southeast and West for
CoreTech Leasing, Inc., and Derek Doerfler the company’s regional Manager of
the Midwest regions. CoreTech is an
independent leasing company working in strategic partnership with enterprise
decision makersas well as over 100 of the nation’s most distinguished law firms
to optimize their technology leases ranging from $50,000-$10,000,000. For more information, please visit www.coretechleasing.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment