Johannesburg, 19 Jul 2012
Kaseya South Africa, a leading provider of IT systems management software, is now able to offer its small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients a software financing option, following an agreement with IT rental financier, Spartan.
"Spartan will now finance an organisation that wants to buy Kaseya technology, at a competitive interest rate over a 36-month period, on a rent-to-own basis, including all maintenance costs, provided they pass all the relevant credit checks," explains Garth Hayward, regional manager for Kaseya Africa. "This gives our current and prospective clients a more flexible approach in terms of how they consume Kaseya technology, as they now have the opportunity to buy our solutions outright, finance them or merely rent them. This caters to any form of company IT spend, be it a capex or an opex model."
Kumaran Padayachee, chief executive officer at Spartan Technology Rentals, says IT financing, especially in terms of software, has experienced consistent double-digit growth since the last global recession, especially in the US. "While companies have cash, they want to conserve it as a buffer in these uncertain economic times. However, as their businesses grow, they are still looking for the competitive advantage that the latest IT can offer," he explains. "As such, we are experiencing a shift in the way companies consume their IT, be it infrastructure, hardware, or software."
Following this shift, Spartan has seen an increase in the number of international and local original equipment manufacturers and software vendors that have approached the company seeking suitable financing solutions for their clients.
"Most other financial institutions are not willing to extend favourable financing terms to SMEs, and in most instances, won't finance software," continues Padayachee. "Vendors like Kaseya are therefore increasingly finding that their current and prospective clients are unable to secure the finance they require to purchase a suitable IT solution. This is the case particularly in Kaseya's core market of managed service providers (MSP) and IT support service providers, as they are generally considered higher risk businesses by banks."
However, according to Padayachee, as entrepreneurs with 31 years of experience, Spartan understands the IT sector, which is why it is comfortable financing these types of companies. "We specialise in financing IT assets and provide the financing from our balance sheet - we don't broker or discount our rentals to other funders. We are the funder," he explains. "As such, Spartan is the only financial institution in the country willing to finance the entire software project, from the actual software and licensing, to the training, installation, maintenance, and the other professional services that form part-and-parcel of the software solution."
Padayachee also believes that supporting Kaseya's primary target market of MSPs and IT service providers also supports the larger IT sector, by offering a secondary benefit in terms of the lower input costs. "By using the Spartan financing solution, these companies are more competitive in the market and are also in a position to offer better pricing to the industry at large."
"We saw this financing option as an important development in our business, especially as a means to convert some of our perpetual prospects who have been unable to secure vanilla financing through traditional channels," explains Hayward. "We therefore approached Spartan to help us overcome these challenges and now see this agreement as a big differentiator for our products in the local market," he concludes.
"We are extremely happy to partner with Kaseya in this regard, as they are global leaders in managed services and IT systems management," emphasises Padayachee.
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