GE Access Provides 90-Day Terms To VARs' Security Clients

GE Access

Through the end of June, GE Access will offer end users 90-day terms on the purchase of security products via their solution providers, said Michael Minard, executive vice president.

The program is an extension of GE Access' OpenLink program, under which the distributor finances end-user purchases with 30-day terms while paying the solution providers their normal profit or commissions within 10 days of the sale, Minard said.

Included in the promotion are products from CheckPoint, Nokia, ISS, RSA, and StoneSoft.

The 90-day terms are contingent on the end-user proving their credit-worthiness, Minard said.

"We will handle the bad debt," he said. "This helps the reseller by giving it essentially unlimited credit."

GE Access may extend the 90-day terms to other product lines, depending on the success of the security promotion, Minard said.

Jason Prost, president and CEO of Guardian Technologies, a Chicago-based security solution provider formed less than two months ago, said the new OpenLink program is a boon to small integrators because it lets them concentrate on making the deals and letting GE Access handle the financials.

"We are a security consulting firm," Prost said. "That's our expertise. We are not a financial institution. Our job is not to extend loans to companies. GE Access, with their resources, can do it. In return, they can leverage the existing business relationships of smaller resellers."

With GE Access handling the financing, Guardian can focus on brokering new deals, Prost said. "GE Access takes away the need for us to do fulfillment, or financing, or related paperwork," he said. "It lets us go out and broker another deal. I can go out and market aggressively, and not have to worry about the back-end."

Not only does letting GE Access offer 90-day terms to clients enable solution providers to focus on getting making new deals, it also helps reassure customers that their business will not be affected by problems if the VAR is too small or goes out of business, Prost said.

"Customers want to deal with us, but they don't want to worry about if we can fulfill," Prost said. "They might have a $7 million project and look for vendors that can fulfill the deal. They don't want us to say we can only do a $10,000 part of a $7 million deal."