Unified Communications For The Price Of A Newspaper?
That leaves VARs in a sticky position: They want to sell the soon-to-be-necessary solutions that comprise voice, data and video tools and applications to help organizations communicate more efficiently and effectively, but also recognize that not everyone can afford to dive into the UC right away.
Cisco Capital on Monday unveiled a new unified communications pricing plan to help VARs show SMBs that unified communications is not only affordable through financing, but it can often cost less than a morning cup of coffee or daily newspaper.
"The concept is to help SMB unified communications partners get over the affordability hurdle," said Maryann Von Seggern, director of worldwide channels for Cisco Capital, the financing arm of San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant Cisco Systems.
The new UC pricing model, Von Seggern said, is per user, per day, which makes it easier for North American Cisco partners to give their SMB customers financing of unified communications systems. She added that the pricing model is part of a series of tools and programs to help Cisco certified resellers demonstrate that unified communications solutions can be affordable and that VARs can meet customer demands in the growing unified communications market.
The per-user-, per-day-price approach is for a typical configuration with four or more customers using Cisco EasyLease. The pricing includes hardware, software and support services.
According to Von Seggern, a unified communications deployment for 22 users would run $540 per month in a 36-month-term and $406 a month over a 60-month-term. The new pricing structure breaks it down, illustrating how that translates to each user. For example, the $540 monthly payment is $0.82 per user, per day, while the $406 monthly payment is $0.62 per user, per day. The same formula applies to larger deployments. For example, a unified communications deployment for 73 users would cost $2,527 a month for 36 months or $1,876 a month for 60 months. Using the per-user-per-day model, the 36 month term breaks down to $1.15, while the five-year term drops to just $0.86 per user, per day.
While the cost is basically unchanged, Von Seggern said the ability for VARs to illustrate the system cost on a per user, per day basis makes it easier for them to sell, ultimately helping them boost revenue by eliminating the need for customers to make a massive up-front investment.
"The biggest hurdle they experience is affordability and the perception that these solutions are too expensive," she said. "It's easier to sell the solution that they're working on if they can show the costs in this way."
Cindy Hamer, private sector sales manager for AMS.NET, a Livermore, Calif.-based solution provider, said per-user-per-day-pricing, along with zero percent progress payments address SMB customer budgetary concerns and let her offer competitive financing to clients.
"As budget and price are often concerns for small- to medium-sized businesses, they often mistakenly believe Cisco Unified Communications systems are beyond their budget," she said.
Chuck Davis, a senior account manager with AMS.NET agreed, adding that clients often ask for a ballpark quote and typically don't have time to wait. Per-user-, per-day-financing, he said, can help clients that can't predict the exact amount they will have available to spend on unified communications or can't take the hit of a lump sum payment on their working budget.
"In the private sector, you can't always forecast how much money you're going to have in your bank account, " he said. "This helps us be more flexible to the customers' needs."
Joe Pucciarelli, program director of technology financing and management strategies for IDC, said in a statement that putting a new twist on financing options helps both channel partners and customers navigate the complexities of financing and that financing has become an effective tool for managing technology transitions.
"New customer financing options that bridge technology and capital with tangible, readily understood metrics are an increasingly important strategy to assist companies in structuring hardware, services and financing solution sets," he said.
Along with releasing its per-pricing-, per-day-model, Cisco Capital on Monday also announced enhancements to its grow i.t. partner portal, which contains Cisco Capital programs, offers, tools, training and collateral for channel partners to create finance quotes, auto-generate documentation, and understand and take advantage of financing in their sales cycles.
Enhancements include an updated self-service online commercial quoting tool that lets partners generate their own customized per-user, per-day quotes; co-branded partner marketing materials; videos on demand about the grow i.t. portal that cover financing trends, financing basics, sales strategies, Cisco Capital offers and partner programs, and partner engagement; and an updated Cisco Capital Operations Guide explaining how partners can work with their customers and Cisco Capital.