….“the never, never”, “the Tally Man.” Depending on your age you may not remember these terms, having been raised in SE London I am familiar with the first two, the third I remember from songs I was taught at school by an Indian teacher who had been brought up in the West Indies and taught us songs from that region.
We now refer to these things with much more official and less romantically cultural terms, credit, HP, lease, but they are all the same or similar thing; a process that allows you to acquire something without the need for capital or paying upfront. Not all of the schemes allow you to take ownership of the product at the end, I remember a fantastic scheme in the 1960’s/1970’s pioneered by companies such as Radio Rentals (founded by Percy Perring-Thoms in 1930). My family was signed up to such a scheme which meant we could have a TV (a prohibitively expensive item for a working-class family at that time) by paying a few bob (a couple of shillings) each week. The added benefits of this scheme were if the item broke (and they frequently did, they were reliant on glass valves which often blew and needed replacing), Radio Rentals would repair it free of charge, and if you wanted a better version (usually a bigger screen) or the latest version, you could get them to replace it by increasing what you paid. I remember my foster-mums pride when we received the first 24” colour TV, I can remember her hanging out a bedroom that overlooked my school playground shouting that it has arrived!
Like TVs in the 60s/70s modern electronic equipment is expensive especially when you are looking at several devices and peripherals. The financial impact of the COVID pandemic which has affected most companies has made acquiring them even more difficult leaving some companies in a catch-22: I need new equipment to make me more efficient and to realise cash-releasing benefits, but I can’t afford to do this because I do not have the capital, in many ways it is the economic dichotomy of progress: I need money to make money.
Which is why companies that produce or sell relatively expensive products must consider their Affordability; Radio Rentals got it right with TVs to their benefit and the benefit of their customers, Bejam’s did the same with refrigerators and freezers in the 70s/80s, and more recently car ‘ownership’ has been transformed by the industry considering affordability. Buy now/pay later schemes have always been part of the information technology industry, but in my experience, it is usually promoted and utilised for small consumer purchases, or large infrastructure projects.
Sumo Technologies have recently implemented several ways that will allow companies to acquire devices either with significant discounts, through monthly/quarterly payments, or both. For more details on this why not check-out: Financing | Sumo Technologies. We can also provide options specific to the NHS or public sector.
And as for the Radio Rentals option, we launched a scheme last year that will provide you a similar wrap-around service: The Sumo Advantage | Sumo Technologies
If you have any questions about this or anything else to do with Sumo Technologies then why not comment against this post or email me simon@sumotech.com, it can’t help to take a butchers!
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