Syscap ramps up channel finance support after bank integration

IT finance provider Syscap says it will now focus exclusively on channel business after becoming a subsidiary of Wesleyan Bank. Syscap was acquired by the Wesleyan Group in February 2015.

The new integration “forms a formidable commercial financial services business” offering tailored banking solutions to over 22,500 customers under two distinctive brands, said the Group.

Together, the Bank and Syscap employ 120 staff from three UK office locations situated in Birmingham, New Malden, Surrey and Northwich, Cheshire.

From today, existing Syscap customers comprising professions, education institutes and SME businesses will be directed towards the Wesleyan Bank brand for finance, while the Syscap brand will be reserved exclusively for IT channel activities to support its network of vendor partners and resellers.

Philip White, managing director of Syscap, said: “Syscap has been at the forefront of the IT finance industry for over 25 years. More recently, we have seen a real shift from vendors simply thinking of finance as a way to overcome budget objections, to using it to drive other buyer behaviour, from transitioning to SaaS models or encouraging customers to lock into longer term support and maintenance contracts.”

He said: “Wesleyan, with its ethical and customer centric approach, was a natural home for Syscap and has allowed us to significantly invest in people, processes and systems to benefit our partners and their customers to accelerate mutual growth.”

The successful integration, said Syscap, has enabled it to extend its payment over time solutions to cover software, hardware, services, maintenance and support. It also provides funding to assist IT vendors to invest in new technologies, such as data centres, and “increase margins on their deals by prime contracting customer contracts” through “purchasing the required partner services and licenses up-front in bulk”.

Additional investment has been made to strengthen Syscap’s partner portal to offer more relevant sales and marketing content, in addition to providing extended training and support services to better assist IT vendors and resellers.

“To keep things simple”, said Syscap, there will be no changes to existing payment agreements for customers of IT vendors and resellers who have live lease or loan products with Syscap, or through one of its funding partners.

White added: “We are now able to offer more focused support to our partners from a larger software development team behind our vendor portal, right through to credit, business administration and front line account management.

“This is enabling us to run more successful sales and marketing engagements which are helping IT vendors and resellers remove potential barriers to sales and close more deals.”

@AntonySavvas