PC World Business Smartplan - spread the cost of IT

Dickie

ok, maybe I apologise. But I do not work for any company in the DSGi group. It would not be professional of me to say exactly who I work for. I have plenty of experience as well thanks

1 post? Dont we all have to start somewhere? I did a Google search for Smartplan and this thread came up, I thought I would post my 2 penneth.

I still hold my main valid point of "Leasing IT equipment is a sensible choice for businesses that are in the know. You can claim vat back on the rentals, the fixed payments allow you to budget properly and small weekly payments mean that cash can be kept in teh business. Many small businesses use the product because when they are growing they need strong cash-flow. Renting your equipment allows this.Dont think just of the cost, more of the opportunity cost"

Like I say, if you have a lot of cash in the businness it is not for you. NOt all products are for everyone.

The question was about SmartPlan. Why bring in PC World technical support? That's what I mean about taring all with the same brush.

I appreciate you might not know one company small or large that you deal with that would consider leasing, but I reckon smartplan could name tens of thousands that do, so why feel the need to say this?

YOu saying that your company has funds is exactly what I said - it does not suit all. If you are a startup design agency for example with high overheads purchasing Apple MAc kit for about £8k is a bit of a serious outlay on day 1. That's when renting for 3 or 4 years is applicable

Currys do not provide a similar product. PC World are the only people who offer a renting solution (in teh UK)

Hopefully that is better?

superscaper

Dickie wrote: »

The question was about SmartPlan. Why bring in PC World technical support? That's what I mean about taring all with the same brush.

How are they mutually exclusive? SmartPlan is only provided exclusively by PC World. PC World Business provide the technical support on those leases. The question is why do you think PC World technical support has nothing to do with it? Do you think SmartPlan provide the technical support? As far as I know they do not, the technical support point of contact is with PC World.

Buy a lease through SmartPlan = Technical support provided by PC World. No matter what the circumstances. It's not "tarring with the same brush" when it's actually the original thing.

Dickie

Because Technical support is not very good, it does not mean a smartplan is a load of rubbish. That's what I meant.

It seems that I am getting shot down here for suggesting that maybe it is not as bad as everyone thinks. I knwo PCW/PCWB have a bad reputation but that is no need to think that smartplan is rubbish - they are a vendor, just like HP, SOny etc.

Does this also mean that HP & Sony are as bad companies and not 'professional'?

isofa

Dickie wrote: »

ok, maybe I apologise. But I do not work for any company in the DSGi group. It would not be professional of me to say exactly who I work for. I have plenty of experience as well thanks

Well we are all humbled! :rolleyes:

Dickie wrote: »

1 post? Dont we all have to start somewhere? I did a Google search for Smartplan and this thread came up, I thought I would post my 2 penneth.

Your first post was hardly the normal first post for a forum newbie. "Please do your research before making lame comments" - honestly what do you expect, from posting such a thing?

Dickie wrote: »

I still hold my main valid point of "Leasing IT equipment is a sensible choice for businesses that are in the know. You can claim vat back on the rentals, the fixed payments allow you to budget properly and small weekly payments mean that cash can be kept in teh business. Many small businesses use the product because when they are growing they need strong cash-flow. Renting your equipment allows this.Dont think just of the cost, more of the opportunity cost"

Like I say, if you have a lot of cash in the businness it is not for you. NOt all products are for everyone.

You are now talking of business leasing in general, which I'll just refer you to my points above, I never said in all cases it was a bad idea.

Dickie wrote: »

The question was about SmartPlan. Why bring in PC World technical support? That's what I mean about taring all with the same brush.

See superscaper's response.

Dickie wrote: »

I appreciate you might not know one company small or large that you deal with that would consider leasing, but I reckon smartplan could name tens of thousands that do, so why feel the need to say this?

Firstly this thread was a question regarding the specific PC World related service.

Why do I feel the need to say what I do? Because I speak with experience of colleagues who have received appalling service from PC World, well documented, and I for one, would never recommend anything connected to that company nor DSG group.

Letting these monkeys or anyone related to PC World anywhere near business level computing would be an incredible poor judgement by a company, IMO.

Dickie wrote: »

YOu saying that your company has funds is exactly what I said - it does not suit all. If you are a startup design agency for example with high overheads purchasing Apple MAc kit for about £8k is a bit of a serious outlay on day 1. That's when renting for 3 or 4 years is applicable

A great example, right into an area of my specific expertise Any creative studio company requiring Macs, will talk to a professional company such as: Jigsaw Systems, MacWarehouse, Cancom or all manner of other Apple specialists for such a requirement, should they want to consider leasing. If you think £8K is a lot for some hardware, you should try and kit out a studio with a site licence for Adobe Creative Studio and other professional software, that is a very significant cost.

In any case such a business would have a tight business plan, and more than likely a source of funding up front, be it capital, business loan or other such funding.

Dickie wrote: »

Currys do not provide a similar product. PC World are the only people who offer a renting solution (in teh UK) Hopefully that is better?

:rolleyes:

Dickie

I am hearing everything that you are saying and agree with some of it - apart from the obvious. But not everyone agrees on everything.

I could go on all day about a design studio (I think these are good examples - no i dont own one ). But someone opening their own business in this line of business with a handful of employees uis unlikely to know about the sources you mentioned. Do they lease?

But why do you have an obsession that Smartplan are not a professional company?

IT is that final point I am now interested in. If you want to start about exhorbitant prices for rental. That is another conversation that we could talk about all day - supply/demand and all that

superscaper

Dickie wrote: »

Because Technical support is not very good, it does not mean a smartplan is a load of rubbish. That's what I meant.

But surely it does? You can't consider only one without the other. It's part of the lease. You're using false analogies because SmartPlan isn't a company. It's a product which includes technical support by PC World. The "vendor" is RentSmart and nobody has said one way or the other whether they're a good company (although apparently not going by reviews elsewhere). A Sony Vaio may be a good laptop. But the analogy would more properly be "buying a Sony Vaio laptop from PC World" and no that wouldn't be a good product.

Since Smartplan can ONLY be bought by PC World and since PC World is a pretty rubbish place to buy from then it isn't a good product (and the product is both the lease and the technical support, I'd love to see a company that didn't consider technical support to be a consideration of a lease product).

superscaper

Dickie wrote: »

But why do you have an obsession that Smartplan are not a professional company?

For a start it's a product and not a company.

Dickie

Thats not correct. Technical support is not part of the lease.

The lease product does not include technical support or warranty. It is purely the leasing - the financial element of it. Take a look at www.smartplaninfo.co.uk it explains it all on there.

I recall above that it was implied above that Smartplan was provided by a none professional company?

Certain HP laptops are exclusive to PC World. Therefore HP are rubbish? A loose analogy I know, but still true. Rentsmart do not operate with PC World in the USA & France and are therefore linked with other strong retailers...

Dickie

superscaper wrote: »

For a start it's a product and not a company.

*ignores*.

Jakg

Just to point out - Smartplan is tax-detuctible. They also get BIG bonuses out of it so try to haggle a good deal (i.e. software chucked in free).