Nearly every vendor these days is extremely bullish about the future of the PC industry. But step out to buy a PC and there are very few financial institutions ready to fund a customer’s PC purchase. The sad truth is that at a time when lending institutions are falling over themselves to offer credit in the consumable goods space, PC sellers are finding a dearth of financers.
p____p Lending institutions are not too keen on offering financial assistance to PC buyers as they claim that there are too many variations to the product and the price range is too wide. Some have even burnt their fingers in the past. High rate of defaulters, low resale value of the product, technical obsolescence are just some of the things that went wrong with PC financers.
p____p So what does a partner do in a situation like this? Does he give up his USP of being able to offer a customized solution to his client and offer a standard product, because it’s easier to get finance for such a product?
p____p No. The answer lies in customizing the financial solution too. Most partners are already doing this in a limited manner. PC manufacturers too are doing their bit by directly partnering with banks or credit agencies. But a more effective move would be for regional associations or national IT associations to come to the forefront and address the financing issue. The approach has to be two-pronged get banks to reinstate their PC finance schemes and get partners to do a background check on a customer before recommending him/her for a loan.
p____p A move like this would have a major impact on the assembler segment, for right now he is the one who is most affected by the lack of financiers in this segment. For once the money comes back, even assemblers, who account for the largest percent of PC sales in the country, will also have a reason to be bullish about the PC industry.