The calculations we looked at yesterday showed clearly that ROI is not necessarily an immediate thing - with technology, the ROI is sometimes not realised until year 2 or beyond. Can your organisation manage this negative impact on cash flow whilst you are waiting for the benefits to take effect?

Many companies look to banks to fund large investment knowing the ROI is a future thing and they need to manage cash flow utnil they see these benefits. At Saratoga we offer rental agreements with one of the main reasons being to allow clients to offset the negative cash flow impact of technology projects. The overall cost increases as we have to cover the additional risk to us and the time value of future revenue. What we have found though is that many people do not look at the proposal in this way. They have a desire to purchase outright rather than spread the costs. We know there are some reasons people may do this and maybe we’re not communicating the benefits fully, but we have always believed the cash flow issues and associated speed of ROI would persuade a reasonable number of clients to opt for rental agreements. Have we misjudged what people want?

What if we package all the products and services you need in to a monthly rental - the Managaed Service apparoach? This would give a business owner/manager a fixed monthly fee based on number of workstations required (directly related to number of staff) for all their IT needs. Thsi immediately allows the employer to either measure the ROI on this investment easily or to set the costs as a cost of employment as it is related to employee numbers. This also ties in with the move to Software As A Service (SAS) - where monthly fees are paid for access to software rather than buying licenses ouright. How attractive is a fully managed service package to an SME - particularly with an eye to ensuring a quick and significant ROI?