Jim Findlay, regional sales manager, Dell Financial Services

Over 4,000 UK businesses went into insolvency in Q1 2015 alone according to The Insolvency Service. This means that the balance between keeping the lights on and growth have never been narrower. Organisations today often have to use scarce cash resources or depleting credit lines to fund technology investments, however, finding the right technology partner is something that can organisations can struggle with.

However, access to finance remains the biggest inhibitor to businesses growth today according to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016. Unfortunately, this is set to continue for the foreseeable future.

This critical business need for finance was a primary factor behind the decision to establish Dell Financial Services in 2013 and since then it has experienced strong growth in the global technology marketplace, with support spanning 18 countries across EMEA alone. DFS aims to fill the void left by the banks who no longer wish to operate in the space by providing financing solutions for Dell customers.

We believe that when organisations look to embrace emerging technologies, such as moving IT to the cloud, finance is something which can stand in the way, by providing financial support to organisations, and subsequently allowing deployments to proceed, it becomes possible to quickly and successfully provide users with the technology that they need, on demand. By doing so, business growth is expected to increase considerably in 2016, and this is something that we are helping to expedite, whilst also ensuring that organisations are targets, as well as supporting the industry to meet its fullest potential.

With this growth, comes the call for various payment models, as not one size fits all. We expect to see the popularity of Scale on Demand payment methods increase in 2016. With this model, organisations can pay for technology as they use it, therefore, it is now possible to maximise the deployment to accommodate current usage trends while still being prepared for future growth. We also see 2016 as a year which will be filled with a number of exciting changes in the ways which organisations engage with technology, and methods used to deploy new solutions across a range of environments.

There is a strong demand for leasing in the public sector and we expect that to continue throughout 2016. With budgets in the public sector expected to decrease, often technology is the first area to be cut, however, with flexible repayment plans available such as Scale on Demand, this will not be an issue as technology will be able to grow with the organisation. Dell Financial Services is able to offer public sector organisations the solutions which they need to provide the public with a functional end-to-end IT infrastructure but also will help move organisations from Capex to Opex payment models.

Along with organisations in the public sector, we also expect to see strong demand in the SME space where access to finance can be challenging. Medium-sized enterprises in particular have a significant requirement for technology to grow their businesses, as this can help to show their differentiation as well as allow them to offer an increasingly personal service which may not be available elsewhere, however, these businesses often find it difficult to get traditional financing especially for technology investments, as often banks feel that technology is an intangible asset, and refuse to lend funds on this basis. Dell Financial Services has experienced strong growth in this sector.

2016 is going to be a year in which many organisations will change the ways that they receive financial support, and we are looking forward to helping organisations and the economy to grow!