Ingram Micro has introduced two financing programs for U.S. and Canadian resellers looking to keep business flowing despite severely weakened economic conditions.
The new offers come on top of earlier programs, announced last month, that extended $110 million in incremental credit to Ingram partners. Ingram eased the terms of one of those programs today as well.
The first of the new funding options, which Ingram has dubbed “90 Days Same as Cash”, allows buyers to pay only the equivalent of a lease installment on technology purchases for the first two months. At the end of three months, they can either continue making monthly payments through the end of the lease term or pay off the balance owed in full with no added interest or penalty.
The arrangement, which applies only to deals worth $10,000 or more, essentially gives end users who prefer to buy IT equipment upfront an interest-free loan for 90 days, plus the flexibility to lease the gear instead if they choose. Ingram can structure the deal as either a fair market value or $1 buyout lease.
In an example of how the program works cited by Ingram, someone making a $30,000 purchase based on 60-month lease terms could pay $627 in each of the first two months and then either pay the remaining $28,746 owed in cash or continue remitting $627 installments for another 58 months.
The second new program, called Baker’s Dozen, lets businesses stretch payments on a 12-month financing contract over a 13-month period at no extra charge, with two payments due in advance. Deals must be worth $5,000 or more.
“In today’s uncertain times, every effort—big or small—that helps move business forward and keeps people connected and working safely and securely counts,” said Kirk Robinson, senior vice president and U.S. chief country executive for Ingram Micro, in prepared remarks.
Ingram also announced today that the Future Funds program it introduced in March now lets end users pay 1% of a transaction’s total purchase cost per month for the first six months before deciding whether to convert the deal into a standard lease agreement or pay the original equipment cost in full. The program originally charged 1.5% for those first six months.
Available for purchases valued at $25,000 and above, Future Funds essentially lets buyers pay interest only on new products for half a year at a time when cash is in short supply for many businesses. As before, the offer is subject to credit approval and currently set to expire on June 30th, though Ingram has said before that it will consider extending it further based on market conditions two months from now.
Programs like Future Funds, 90 Days Same as Cash, and Baker’s Dozen are all designed to help channel partners leverage Ingram’s borrowing power and balance sheet strength to get themselves and their clients through a period in which the COVID-19 crisis has made acquiring technology for work-from-home employees and other needs riskier for organizations suddenly collecting little to no revenue. Frank Vitagliano, CEO of the Global Technology Distribution Council, an industry association for distributors, encourages channel pros to take advantage of such opportunities.
“Now is not the time to ride this out and see what’s left,” he said in a media statement. “Now’s the time to be resourceful, listen to the needs of your people and your customers, and take action. Financing is one of the many ways distribution adds value and these new programs from Ingram Micro are another great example of the critically important support and services distribution provides to the channel and their customers, particularly during times of difficulty and unexpected waves of demand.”
Other distributors, including D&H, are providing increased financial assistance to partners impacted by the coronavirus pandemic as well. So too are leading vendors such as Lenovo, HP, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
IDC recently forecast a 2.7% decline in global economic spending this year due to the economic effects of the coronavirus outbreak.
