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IT majors give loans to SMEs
By siliconindia
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Saturday, 22 December 2007, 01:56 IST
New Delhi: Major IT companies has come up with a plan for funding for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs in India are planning to spend more than $8 billion in 2007 to beef up their IT infrastructures, which represents a robust 24 percent increase from last year,reported Business standard.
Companies like Cisco Capital, part of global networking company Cisco, IBM, HP has already started some schemes for the SMEs. Cisco recently launched its Easy Lease scheme in India which enables SMEs to adopt state-of-the-art network technology quickly and easily, with minimal initial investment.
SMEs can maintain consistent and balanced operating and capital expenditures, by making payments on a monthly or quarterly basis. Easy Lease offers streamlined lease documentation, flexible payment options and fast turnaround
"Indian SMEs understand the critical transformative impact that technology can have on their businesses, but are too often hampered by budget issues that restrict their ability to purchase the equipment they need," said Gautam Munish, Country Manager Leasing, Cisco Capital India.
IBM recently launched its IBM Financing Advantage (IFA) for the mid-market segment. It offers customers and business partner?s complete single-source financing at competitive rates, featuring easy access to leases and loans for IBM and non-IBM hardware, IBM software and IBM services, and a full range of buyback, recycling and scrap services to help manage costs, while simultaneously funding growth.
"SMEs need to focus on their core businesses all the while knowing they have end-to-end support for their IT infrastructure as they grow. Any organization can benefit from the reduced costs, simplified budgeting, credit preservation and flexibility provided by financing. Here is where IBM Financing Advantage comes in," adds Narasimhan.
Hewlett-Packard, is also aggressively pursuing this segment, with its financial services. Smart Finance Service is a complete acquire-to-retire suite of financial services
Organizations whose employee number is less than 100 or turnover of less than 100 crore are serviced by HP Smart Finance. While medium businesses organisations with employees between 100 and 999 and turnover of Rs 100 to Rs 2000 crore come under the ambit of HP's Financial Services.