Synnex Offers HP, Lexmark MFP Leasing Bundles
The distributor also added a new thin-client hardware vendor partner, VXL Instruments, to its line at the annual VAR event which attracted about 300 partners.
The new MFP leasing opportunity was put together by Synnex in conjunction with GE Commercial finance leasing's technology financial services group.
Under the leasing initiative, HP and Lexmark are offering bundles that combine multifunction printers, toner and support pack or extended warranty for a 10 percent up-front margin on a 36-month lease held by GE. The bundles are aimed in part at providing VARs with the leasing muscle to grab a slice of the copier market with the new class of MFP products.
GE Commercial Finance Technology Financial Services executives said the bundles are the first step toward a planned managed services printer offering that could be unveiled in the next six months with Synnex.
Several VARs said they are interested in the new leasing opportunity because of the added margin potential it could bring them over an outright sale in an intensely competitive printer hardware market.
"This is an attractive opportunity, but what they need to do is give us the proper training and tools since we are not accustomed to selling this way," said Eydie Worley, marketing director at PCUniverse, a $33 million solution provider in Boca Raton, Fla.
Myra Saylor, purchasing/programs manager at Tereck Office Solutions, a Durham, N.C.-based solution provider that has offered printing managed services for years, said the strength of the offering will depend upon the GE rates compared with competitive leasing programs that are already available through Tereck.
"If GE is competitive and they want our business, we need an excellent lease rate," she said, noting the Tereck sales reps usually make a leasing decision based on the best lease rate. "We need fair market value or dollar buyout."
Under the HP bundle, the HP 4345 multifunction printer, three toners, and an HP support pack can be leased at a monthly rate of $181.40 for the customer, netting the VAR $500 up front on a $10,000 sale.
In contrast, the Lexmark bundle of the Lexmark X600 Series with two toners and an extended warranty is priced starting at $1,500 up to $10,000 with a 10 percent up-front margin, said Paul Merritt, director of US Business Channel sales at the company.
As for the VXL thin-client hardware addition, Synnex executives said the deal marked its first foray into the thin-client hardware market.
The deal provides Synnex VARs with a thin-client offering priced 20 percent below the competitive offering from WYSE and with 25 percent more features, said Frank Noon, vice president of sales at Bangalore, India-based VXL.
Key to the VXL strategy is to capitalize on its lower cost structure to pressure WYSE in the US market. Noon maintained that VXL runs at about 12 percent of sales for operating costs compared with 36 percent of sales for operating costs for WYSE.
Synnex initially is targeting the VXL product line at about 800 of its partners that sell Citrix thin-client software solutions.