While Washington lurches toward passing another economic stimulus package, Dell is reaching out to small- and medium-size business owners to help them stay afloat as the worldwide economic crisis ricochets onward.
This week the company announced financing deals on select Latitude laptops and PowerEdge Energy Smart servers. Dell calls the “zero percent $1 buy-out lease promotion” ideal for small and medium businesses looking to refresh their technology for better performance, productivity, lower maintenance costs and higher energy efficiency, while at the same time preserving capital for other necessary expenditures. Dell is using the $1 buy-out promotion to give customers the choice of owning the equipment at the end of the lease term.
“What’s great about the $1 buy-out offer is that most customers refreshing their technology infrastructure will qualify,” said Dell Small and Medium Business, Americas Vice President and General Manager Erik Dithmer. “Customers want exceptional value, especially during tough times, and we think Dell is best able to deliver solutions and financing options that help customers stay productive, lower costs and improve cash flow.”
Qualified small business owners can take advantage of 36-month lease terms for low payments, as well as quarterly billing that Dell says reduced the paperwork load but provides the same predictability. The financing promotion is available on selected Latitude E5500, E6400 and E6500 laptops and PowerEdge 1950 and 2950 Energy Smart servers, for technology totaling $25,000 or more. The promotion ends May 1.
The promotion also draws attention to Dell’s line of energy-efficient PowerEdge servers. Dell implemented technology to reduce server power draw and the resulting system heat, along with “Low-Flow” fan technology and low voltage Intel Xeon processors designed to increase performance per watt.
“We were quickly outgrowing our current storage infrastructure and needed an iSCSI storage area network solution that didn’t consume too much capital,” said Ted Vibbert, AVP/IT Director, at Brightclaim, an Atlanta-based provider of integrated claims solutions to the property and casualty insurance market. “With the special promotion from Dell, we got the EqualLogic solution we needed to store and protect our data, serve our customers and provide a flexible storage solution for our growing business.”
Dell also cited a recent study by the National Federation of Independent Business, the Small Business Economic Trends report, which found U.S. small business owners are deferring non-essential projects, and the number planning to make capital expenditures in the coming months fell to 17 percent.
In a signal that the company understands the breadth of this financial crisis, Dell is also making additional financing and leasing offers available to SMBs, including no payments for 90 days on Fair Market Value (FMV) lease rotation programs, which allow customers to lease technology and return or exchange it at the end of the term. Dell says this reduces the total cost of ownership by as much as 20 percent. The FMV offer ends May 1.