Getting payments right can be a major headache for businesses looking to grow. That’s why we help our partners overcome budget constraints, align payments out with payments in, accelerate the adoption of new technology and consolidate multiple vendor payments into one subscription.
We spoke to Gayle Hares, Chief Financial Officer at Westcon Financial Services (WFS) about how our flexible payment solutions are helping our partners buy technology in a world that’s shifted from large upfront payments to low-cost recurring subscriptions and consumption models. For her, it all comes down to four main ways:
1. Flexibility is paramount
With WFS, we offer partners the ability to pay for their solution over time. We also work with external funders to enable our partners to access finance. We want to emphasise flexibility, so that our partners can always work in a way that suits their needs and goals, especially as the channel pivots to OPEX models.
“It’s the variety of product and country coverage we bring to the channel,” says Gayle. “We also offer something that does not readily exist within the distribution market with our flexible payment solutions.”
2. Finances don’t have to be overly complicated
Our partners want consistency across their businesses and processes. And with our offering and reach we can deliver on their requirements. With
“We are always aiming to make it easier for our partners to do business especially in WFS,” says Gayle. “We are more agile and can offer flexibility to our partners in how they can pay for their solution. The simplicity of our offerings is unrivalled and given the amount of partners who we do multiple deals with, this supports my view.”
3. Our services are focused on growth
We’ve been helping our partners grow their global customer bases for over 35 years. Over that time, technology, compliance and operating models have all changed drastically. But one thing has remained the same for our clients: the desire to grow sustainably while minimising risk.
“Our partners are looking for growth and we offer value and support in a number of ways through the lifecycle of their purchases,” says Gayle. “In particular the ability for us to play in many markets and to replicate our offerings and improve SLAs each time we transact with our partners and our active engagement at every stage of the process.”
4. We have a great team
A huge part of what makes our relationships with partners so strong is trust. Our partners not only know that we work hard to enable them to grow and be more profitable, but also that we are experts at what we do.
“I love the ‘can do’ attitude we have at Westcon,” says Gayle, “and collaboration within teams as well as the variety of people I work with not just from a diversity of skills and business ideas. Having a Global role, I get to work closely with a lot of different personalities and cultures. This makes for a rewarding and exciting work environment.”
Read more from our people and partners how we’re creating Partner Success in the channel.