The idea of owning a high-performance computer system is one that appeals to every company.
The right hardware is the key to greater efficiency and effectiveness.
To meet the now indispensable need for reliable IT equipment, companies have a number of options for financing this investment.
A number of financing companies have specialized in this sector, with the aim of focusing solely on companies’ IT needs and the investment this equipment represents.
These companies offer to take care of everything from A to Z : financing, purchasing, installation, migration and maintenance of the entire IT estate.
Whether you opt for traditional or financial rental, leasing, cash or credit purchase, how do you choose the ideal solution ?
Define the company’s needs upstream
Before embarking on such an investment, the company needs to know exactly what it wants, on several levels: number of devices, minimum expected capacities, software, maintenance, migration… It’s the definition of these needs that will enable it to choose a particular solution.
Renting your IT equipment
This solution continues to develop, and concerns all types of company.
The purpose can be different, depending on whether you opt for leasing or finance leasing.
IT equipment leasing is the right to deduct the rent for your IT equipment, with an option to purchase it at a later date.
This only applies to investments of CHF 50,000 or more.
Finance leases, on the other hand, do not include a purchase option.
It has the advantage of being flexible, since the company can adjust the amount of the lease payments to better manage its cash flow.
This type of contract, renewable at the end of 3 years, obviously allows you to benefit from up-to-date, non-obsolete IT equipment, with maintenance provided by the service provider itself.
Buying IT equipment
If you’re not into leasing, buying is the only solution.
On the other hand, the costs won’t be the same.
This heavy financial investment will have to be renewed every 3 or 4 years, to enable the installation of always efficient and compatible equipment.
The cash or equity purchase, as its name suggests, is an immediate payment for the equipment, with the invoice appearing on the balance sheet and professional VAT to be paid.
In contrast, we know credit purchasing, which is easily granted to very small businesses, and allows us to check the company’s ability to manage this additional expense.
What about software?
For a computer park to be at its most efficient, it too needs to be equipped with software, depending on the needs of the company and the nature of the department concerned.
The popularization of open source software has enabled many companies, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, to equip themselves appropriately.
Open source software doesn’t claim to be any more powerful than the others, but it does have some unbeatable advantages.
With open source software, you don’t have to pay for a license.
With Linux, Mozilla Firefox or OpenOffice, the solution is simple: the software updates itself and benefits from the evolutions thought up and imagined by the teams working on the constant improvement of these tools.
