25/02/2008
A recent survey carried out by Syscap, the UK’s leading independent IT finance provider, has revealed that the credit crunch may not have the negative impact many IT resellers are fearing this year. Sixty percent of buyers said they do not believe the credit crunch will affect their IT spending plans in 2008, with only 19 percent fearing that it would.

By contrast, nearly half of suppliers questioned (42 percent) believed the credit crunch would have a bearing on their customers’ IT spending plans.

Other findings included:
• Finance is considered by most to be a natural element of IT acquisition, with 83 percent of respondents saying they would use it to fund hardware or software; equipment/machinery was the second most popular candidate for finance at 45 percent (multiple answers allowed).
• The main reasons cited for using IT finance were because it “allows acquisition without cash outlay” (60 percent), followed by “allows capital to be deployed elsewhere” (57 percent) and “to preserve cashflow” (39 percent) (multiple answers allowed).
• Ninety-four percent of the 259 supplier and customer respondents stated they were either ‘satisfied’, ‘very satisfied’ or ‘extremely satisfied’ with Syscap’s service.

“These figures show that it’s far from doom and gloom for suppliers and end-users in 2008,” says Philip White, CEO at Syscap. “Despite ominous forecasts, organisations are generally optimistic about this year’s economic outlook, at least when it comes to IT spending. On the basis of these findings, suppliers can approach prospects with less caution than they may have previously thought.”

He went on to say that, “of course we’re delighted to see that confidence in finance appears to be high, particularly in funding IT. And such high customer satisfaction ratings show that Syscap is continuing to help improve the reputation of finance in this country.”

Syscap’s annual industry survey is part of its ongoing research and business development programme. It is designed to identify emerging trends and opportunities, provide a useful insight into the current use of IT finance among both reseller and end-user organisations and gauge customer attitudes towards Syscap so it can continue evolving and improving its products and services.