Lease-enabled rotation programs are quickly becoming the future of IT financing. More and more companies are discovering the many advantages:

Cash Flow Management

You could tie up your resources in equipment acquisitions or bank loans. Or you could finance through a leasing institute, which would allow you to pay for your equipment in low monthly payments while retaining your cash for investing in higher return opportunities.

Potential Tax Benefits

Certain finance structures allow monthly payments to be treated as deductible operating expenses. Consult your tax advisor for additional details.

Technology Road Mapping

As both hardware and software technology continue to rapidly advance, the optimal system lifetime is continuing to shrink. By integrating your financing program with regular technology refreshes, you accomplish several things:

• Facilitate a life cycle management approach that can boost efficiency, productivity and, ultimately, your ability to compete
• Maximize your IT investments by paying only for the use of hardware during its peak technological value, which can be less than the purchase price
• Help reduce the risk of ownership,liability and cost usually associated with asset disposal and re-marketing
• Standardize your IT environment, which can lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by consolidating service vendors and centralizing IT equipment management

Here are a few things to keep in mind while deciding whether to lease or buy:

Considerations	Lease	Buy
Cash Reserves	Conserves cash and leverages your budget	Consumes cash reserves
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)	Can help reduce TCO through standardization, disciplined technology rotation and lower asset disposition costs	Minimizes the focus on TCO while increasing the probability of additional expenditures over lifetime of assets
Budget	Predictable periodic payments from the operating budget may facilitate acquisition even when capital budget is exhausted	Acquisition is limited by the capital budget and usually subject to multiple internal approvals
Equipment Disposal	Virtually eliminates inconvenience and reduces liability of re-marketing or disposal; simply return equipment at end of most lease terms	May need to address and incur costs of disposal designed to meet strict EPA guidelines
Expected Life	Match expected useful life to lease term	Redeployment or disposal may be costly in terms of time, labor and money
Flexibility	Select terms and end-of-lease options to fit your needs and budget	Limited to an upfront, lump-sum capital expense
Technology Rotation	Keep pace with technology advances by implementing a disciplined rotation of equipment at end of lease	Systems kept beyond their optimum useful life can lead to increased maintenance costs and reduced productivity