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For businesses today managing the cost of technology over its life cycle is becoming an increasingly important focus .

As businesses move away from investing time and money to buy technology towards a focus on how best to use technology , the need to approach financing in more innovative ways also comes to the forefront . Globally technology and other B2B services are moving towards a more utility and pay as you go approach . End customers are beginning to see the benefits of focusing more on their core business challenges rather than being overwhelmed with technology challenges . Typically these challenges appear in the form of product life cycle management including selection of technology , purchase , maintenance , upgrade and obsolescence .

For businesses today managing the cost of technology over its life cycle is becoming an increasingly important focus . Businesses want to commoditise the usage of technology as a known and predictable cost over its lifetime . “ There is always a financial wrapper because there is always an investment , return on investment , and a total cost of ownership discussion . It is becoming increasingly important as people move from just simply buying technology to basically buying usage of technology and buying business outcomes ,” explains Sven Jirgal , Vice President and Chief Operating Officer , Cisco Systems Capital Corp .

Cisco Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco , operates globally and across Africa and Middle East , and manages the circular product life cycle . Cisco Capital offers channel partners and end customers , options to upgrade and add equipment as part of a financing agreement . This helps to plan out the technology roadmap more strategically without necessarily requiring further capital investment . Cisco Capital financing helps to integrate asset management with financing strategy and optimise return on investment while lowering total cost of ownership . The costs of implementation , servicing and maintenance costs can also be added , spreading upfront costs over time .

There are three key reasons for Cisco Capital ’ s go to market initiatives . The first is to differentiate itself from amongst other vendors and to meet end user expectations during purchase negotiations . The second is to provide an alternative form of technology ownership model . And the third is to provide an alternate and additional stream of credit for channel partners and end customers .

“ We are basically there to help Cisco customers and partners adopt Cisco technology and provide the financial wrapper for that adoption . Because they acquire technology , they use it and at some point of time they do not need it anymore . They upgrade it or dispose them . We take that back . That is what Cisco Capital does ,” adds Jirgal .

IT vendors at the forefront of technology life cycles need to find ways of ensuring manufactured products are put to their best use across their complete lifespan . Manufactured products are sometimes displaced from the mainstream sales cycle from a number of sources . Distributors may be unable to sell-through their complete stocks over a period of time and are allowed a certain percentage of returns . Customers may return unused products due to a wrong order shipment . Products may be moved to various places for proof of concept or demonstrations and then returned . As part of a financing arrangement , products may be traded in or returned at the end of the lease agreement . All these returns creates a pool of

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