An evolving office technology industry requires finance programs flexible enough to change along with it.
One can’t underestimate the value of a strong relationship. Just ask Mike Lepper, regional vice president of Impact Networking, about the dealership’s relationship with one of its leasing partners, GreatAmerica Financial Services. Ditto for Blake Elliott, vice president of operations and co-owner of Standley Systems.
As dealers like Impact Networking and Standley Systems expand their product and services offerings, they require a finance option to keep pace with the complexities of the deals it was closing. Enter GreatAmerica Financial Services with a variety of programs created to meet the evolving needs of growing dealerships. Programs such as 1nVOICE® and HAAR®, as well as a bundled invoicing option (see sidebar for details on each), allow dealers to differentiate themselves by providing customers, particularly large and mid-size ones with a variety of flexible billing options, such as spreadsheet and location billing to meet those complex needs.
GreatAmerica Financial Services’ Bundled Advantage
Standley Systems’ go-to-market strategy is to leverage bundled invoices wherever possible. About 95% of its customers are on a bundled invoice. This makes sense because Standley Systems has a managed services division in addition to its copier business. For some accounts that use Standley Systems for managed services and copiers, bundled invoicing comes in handy. A customer may pay $4,000 a month, and within that invoice, they are paying for a copier lease, a lease for IT equipment, copier maintenance, IT support, and hosted services. Standley Systems also uses GreatAmerica’s HaaR (Hardware as a Rental) program on the IT services side.
“GreatAmerica gets how we need to go to market,” said Elliott. “We’re working on one of our biggest single-support contracts with them right now. It’s an $80,000 a month payment and includes more than $1 million in hardware.” Because of the complexities of this contract, GreatAmerica can provide the client with custom invoicing and is available when needed to speak with Standleys’ representative and the customer to work through credit questions and other issues.
Expanded Offerings from GreatAmerica Financial Services = More Complex Billing
Impact Networking is a prime example of a company that began as a traditional copier dealer and has since expanded its offerings to include managed IT and cybersecurity, managed digital transformation, and managed marketing as well as other products and services that go beyond traditional copiers and printers. From a financing perspective, those offerings create layers of complexity.
“All the solutions that come together to make these deals a reality take a little bit of work,” acknowledged Lepper. “The traditional leasing space has been lease a copier and pass through the maintenance and escalate it over the course of ‘X’ number of years. For that mid-sized market that we target, having capital to throw at technology isn’t always available, so it is attractive when you can wrap that into a payment and be very strategic.”
In the past, Impact Networking would pass through much of that service or upfront labor because other banks would only recognize the hardware. As a result, funding licenses and upfront labor costs was a challenge. “We try to get our clients in what we call a service mode as fast as possible,” explained Lepper. “They may have five or 10 projects from an IT infrastructure standpoint, but they don’t have the capital to pay. So, we put it on a finance program where we could front- load those resources and expedite those projects.”
Funding the services included in the deal can be another challenge. “GreatAmerica allows our managed services deals to be treated in a similar way to a traditional software deal,” explained Lepper. “Not a lot of the other providers would allow us to do that.”
Dealers with large contracts that require more sophisticated reviews, negotiations, and creative ways to get them amended and approved appreciate the flexibility of GreatAmerica’s programs. For example, some of Impact Networking’s deals can be for as much as $175,000 a month, which over a 60-month period can bring in $3 million. Lepper values how GreatAmerica is willing to work with the dealership and its customers when necessary on these big deals. The timeliness of having access to GreatAmerica Financial Services’ legal team to help create amendments in a timeframe that helps the dealership close deals quicker is another asset.
The Devil is in the Details
The detailed invoices provided by GreatAmerica Financial Services help dealerships like Impact Networking shine when customers want to see expenses associated with the various components of an IT project broken down so they can better understand what they are paying for. Some of these deals are three or four solutions deep, which results in massive amounts of paperwork along with a greater scope of work involved in implementing those solutions.
When selling complex solutions, Impact Networking often touches many different departments in a customer’s organization. Because of that, customizing those invoices is paramount. “We do a lot of invoice customization with GreatAmerica Financial Services because the total payment is $50,000 a month, but there may be 15 things included in the deal,” said Lepper. “The customer is fine with signing the contract, but when they get the invoice, they want a breakdown of everything. Being flexible and nimble is a core strength of GreatAmerica.”
GreatAmerica Financial Services also allows dealers to bill back to a specific customer department or apply cash to the lease. “Whether they’re a private company, a public company, or private equity backed, everybody has their own strategy of how they recognize capital and operational funds and how they want to do things,” noted Lepper. “In some deals, GreatAmerica gives us the flexibility to offer the standard deferral program that you have with copiers with some of the more sophisticated services. That’s helped our clients from a cashflow perspective.”
Post-Sales Support
Standley Systems’ Elliott appreciates the integration with e-automate, auto posting, and the various reports that it receives from GreatAmerica, which is helpful for resolving any billing issues that may arise. “There’s a contract audit report that my team uses to show what we’re supposed to be charging the client and that what they’re actually charging the client is the same because that’s where those variances come in,” noted Elliott.
“We all know there are invoicing issues in general in business,” added Lepper. “Nobody wants that to persist. Our salespeople want to focus on selling. If my account executive team has an invoicing issue, we call GreatAmerica. They are super responsive. We have an internal leasing department, customer service, and a customer relations team, but it’s nice to bring in the lender if the customer warrants it.”
Elliott is bullish on GreatAmerica Financial Services’ customer service, a quality that he says helps them stand out from the competition. “It’s all about the customer service, both to us and to the customer, and the ease of working with them. It sounds pretty basic, but it’s something that’s missing in the financing part of our industry. They have a unique view and a unique skill set within that.”
He likes GreatAmerica Financial Services’ responsiveness as well. “They pick up the phone whenever I call them,” said Elliott. “Whoever I get on the call, whether it’s my rep who knows our account inside and out or someone who happens to pick up the phone, they’re familiar with our account and who we are. They can answer our questions and make decisions for our account. And anyone on my team can call and do the same thing. It doesn’t take me calling in my position to get common sense stuff done. That’s what sets GreatAmerica apart from the competition and how they make things easy. They get what the client needs, and they’re overly helpful.”
Flexible Programs
GreatAmerica Financial Services continues to develop programs to keep pace with the changing office technology industry. These three programs are prime examples of how the company is evolving with the office technology industry, in particular the dealer community.
1nVOICE®
1nVOICE® is designed as a complete, systematic process that offers a simple solution. GreatAmerica Financial Services generates invoices that include both the payment due to GreatAmerica and any related charges the dealer’s customer would normally expect to pay them directly. It also provides the convenience of one invoice with all related charges. Once GreatAmerica collects on the dealer’s behalf, it remits payment back to them aided by its technology integrations.
Bundled Invoicing
A bundled invoice helps both the dealer and the customer by providing a comprehensive, all-inclusive invoice. Equipment, services, and supplies costs can be combined to deliver a single, easy-to-pay invoice to a dealer’s customers.
HAAR®
The customized Hardware-as-a-Rental (HaaR) program provides the customer with a one-invoice solution for all hardware, software, installation, and services. And it does not require the solution provider to take financial risks associated with HaaS (Hardware as a Service).
