More reasons to lease

SANTA ANA, Calif.--Ingram Micro, a distributor increasingly offering more products to the physical security reseller, announced in January a new financing program with Cisco Capital. Cisco Express Leasing will allow resellers immediate access to leasing with minimal capital investment. "It's providing the [reseller] with cash flow to take care of everyday needs to complete a deal," said Bill Bickerton, senior manager for Ingram Financial Services. "It's 120 days of financing, which gives them a longer time to install the product." Cisco's Sypixx offerings, along with its standard data communications products, are included in the offering. Ryan Grant, senior vendor business manager for Cisco at Ingram Micro, said this should encourage even more security integrators to get into the IT side of things. "We're starting to see feedback on more potential revenue in the back-end" of the networks being installed, Grant said. "There's some service revenue there for security installers, and they can see it, and they're starting to come to us and ask, 'How can I sell this Cisco stuff? What kind of training do I need to take?'" He's also seeing, however, traditional technology customers "wanting to get into the security space." "We're playing to both sides," Grant said. "The partners that are already making the investment in Cisco, they've brought on the security technicians, they're trying to find alternative sources of revenue, and, obviously, Sypixx is an opportunity for them as well." For Bickerton, the opportunity is in leasing equipment. "Ingram Micro is going to put significant resources toward education for the resellers," he said, "about how leasing can benefit the business, and how to sell leasing and communicate those benefits to the end users." He said to look for road shows, webinars, and one-to-one phone discussions with customers over the coming year.