Friends of finance


Syscap and BDE began working together in 1991. Through their mutual relationship with Sage, the two companies soon identified a shared commitment to innovation, customer demand and business forethought. Since then, finance has become a fundamental part of the sales process at BDE, giving customers flexibility and choice over their purchasing decisions and ensuring they can always afford the best-fit technologies. Stephen Clarke, Business Development Manager explains the importance of this partnership: “Syscap isn’t just a finance provider. They provide support in a wealth of different ways. They have years of experience and they understand our clients’ needs and constraints. Syscap is our partner and we trust them to work alongside us and our customers.”

The business case


Increasingly, BDE’s customers expect more flexible and cost-efficient payment options, and Syscap enables BDE to offer just that. Usually, if customers want to pay over time, this can leave IT suppliers with a financial black hole, but, as Clarke explains, BDE never has that problem: “If we use finance from Syscap to underpin our payment options, we always get our money in full at the beginning of the agreement. This means we can afford to offer our customers a payment solution and structure that really suits their needs, and we are not left out of pocket.” Syscap helps make the case for finance by demonstrating the real business benefits and showing when customers can expect to get a return on their investment. The Syscap team draws up customer-specific proposals for BDE to take to meetings – or attends the meetings in person – ensuring that customers understand the finance options available to them, further strengthening BDE’s sales proposition.

Tailor-made


Both BDE and Syscap understand that each customer’s business and financial needs are different. These days, just as there are no one-size-fits-all enterprise solutions, finance options need to be designed to match specific financial situations. Syscap’s years of experience and in-depth understanding of BDE’s products and customers means it can works with BDE to develop tailor-made solutions to suit each individual customer’s requirements.

Recently, BDE wanted to close a significant sale with a company that owns amusement parks. The seasonal nature of the company’s business meant a regular finance agreement (where payments were required on an annual or monthly basis) would not suit its needs, requiring strict budget management to ensure enough funds were available during quiet months. So Syscap developed a tailor-made plan to match the fluctuations of the company’s seasonal cashflow, so that payments are only due in the months where cashflow is expected to be highest. “Syscap’s finance solutions have enabled us to offer our customer a flexible payment plan that suits their specific business needs,” says Clarke.

Trust and loyalty


Trust is a crucial factor for BDE, which values its relationships with customers above all else. “Inevitably, working with a finance provider means we have to share a lot of confidential information, both about BDE and our customers,” says Clarke. “We also need them to provide sound advice about finance options and it’s vital that we trust them to have our customers’ best interests at heart. With Syscap I’m always 100 percent confident of their integrity and discretion.” Clarke believes that BDE’s overall service to customers is improved by having a close partnership with a finance provider. “Syscap is always very quick to react to our needs. Customers can get rapid finance decisions to suit their particular circumstances, which helps us to close more business and ensures customer satisfaction. When companies utilise a payment over time option, we often find that they will return to us with repeat business and use a finance option again.”

Syscap Online


The partnership between BDE and Syscap has evolved over time to meet the changing needs of BDE and its customers. Syscap recently launched its latest innovation, Syscap Online, enabling channel partners such as BDE to obtain immediate finance decisions and generate quotes for most transactions. “This helps us to work much more efficiently and improves our customer service by speeding up the transaction process,” explains Clarke.

Importantly, although BDE increasingly uses Syscap Online, this doesn’t restrict contact with the team at Syscap. In fact, Clarke often finds the opposite is true: “Although we no longer need to contact the team directly for every finance decision, Syscap uses the information from the online service to identify opportunities and finance options that we hadn’t considered – opening the door for even more business.” Future plans

BDE is a fast growing company and the recent acquisition of Apex Business Systems has made it the second largest Sage Business Partner. But for Clarke, there is no time for complacency. As Business Development Manager, he is always looking for the next opportunity for expansion and new business, and as far as he is concerned, Syscap is a vital part of that process. “We will continue to work very closely with Syscap. Currently a significant amount of sales are financed through Syscap, and in the future we aim to finance all of our deals through them.” As a partnership spanning 15 years, there is a lot of shared history between BDE and Syscap that has helped to forge the trust and respect that both companies enjoy today. But neither Syscap nor BDE is particularly interested in looking back at the past. As far as both companies are concerned, the focus should be on the future; the solutions, sales and opportunities that will keep this partnership productive and profitable for many years to come.