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European IT & office kit replacement plans still on track despite downturn Despite a deep recession and credit crisis in Europe, companies appear 'determined' to maintain their IT and office equipment replacement policies and periods, reveals new research from Siemens Financial Services. The study was conducted among over 1,500 firms across three countries. Businesses in the UK, France and Germany appear determined to fight back against recessionary pressures and not extend replacement periods for equipment that is essential to their competitiveness. However, too few firms are utilising asset finance to acquire that equipment and remain stuck in the cash purchasing trap. As a result, although companies remain committed to continued equipment investment, a proportion are not managing to access sufficient finance - further fuelling the current downturn in business investment across all three countries studied. UK firms replace their IT and office technology more frequently than German and French companies. However, German and French companies - especially medium sized organisations with between 250 and 2499 employees - take more advantage of asset finance techniques such as leasing to enable their acquisition of new and replacement IT hardware and software, than their UK counterparts. Overall, when it comes to office equipment replacement and acquisition, medium-sized and larger firms are the most enthusiastic users of asset finance. The new research from Siemens Financial Services investigated three main subjects, pertinent to the capital investment in office technology in a recessionary period. First, the research looked at average replacement periods for office technology - specifically, IT hardware, software and office equipment (such as photocopiers and vending machines). Second, respondents were asked about their preferred financing methods for each of these types of office technology. Finally, respondents were quizzed about their main motivations for replacing equipment and software in these three categories. Derek Ryan, Sales Director, Siemens Financial Services UK commented: "It is heartening to see that, despite the recession, companies of all sizes are still recognising the need to acquire the essential equipment they need to be competitive in their markets. They are fighting back against recessionary pressures in order to make those investments, as the need to deliver added value & service to customers becomes even more important as markets contract. As standard lines of bank credit have become more costly and less available in the last year, a significant proportion of companies are turning to asset finance techniques as an alternative means of financing such essential acquisitions. "However, this proportion still represents too few companies making the most of asset financing techniques - all firms could be accessing the finance necessary to support essential investment in a financially efficient way. We know that when equipment vendors offer financing as an integrated part of their proposition, take-up rates increase. "There is huge potential in Europe's main economies for financial managers to make more use of leasing and asset finance, freeing up currently ‘frozen' working capital to deploy it more effectively on business initiatives and new business expansion." However, says SFS, the corollary finding is that 76.8% of British companies, 75.6% of French firms and 67.5% of German businesses are still relying on cash (drawn from working capital or other sources) to fund equipment acquisition. SFS believes that there is considerable room for extended use of asset financing techniques to improve the efficiency of working capital management in UK, German and French businesses, rather than tying up scarce cash in capital equipment investments. August, 2009 |
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