Westcon-Comstor launches own flexible payment solutions to drive partner success

Westcon-Comstor, global technology provider and specialist distributor, has launched Flex (Flexible Payment Solutions), an innovative payment service which provides flexible funding for the IT channel.

Over the last decade, the technology industry has undergone a shift from traditional resale models to subscription-based offerings. This shift has allowed digital transformation programmes to become more agile and iterative by providing easier access to the latest technology while reducing pressures on capital.

Up until now, vendors and partners have struggled to offer the subscription services customers have come to expect due to the pressures placed on their own working capital and cashflow. Flex alleviates these concerns by providing an industry-leading range of flexible payment solutions, contracted, and invoiced directly by Westcon-Comstor, without having to go through third party billing agents or brokers. This allows partners and vendors to offer more solutions in their portfolio on a subscription basis, regardless of their billing capabilities or customer budget restrictions.

Forming a central part of Westcon-Comstor’s broader Partner Success approach, Flex is designed to enable long-term, sustainable success, profitability, and relevance in the growing as-a-service world.

An early success story of the service is Cello, now New Zealand’s fastest growing telco - which adopted Flex during the height of the pandemic to help its clients tackle funding crunches.

“If you’re not in the business of making your partners and customers successful, then you won’t be in business for very long,” said Andrew Allan, Chairman of Cello “Gone are the days of a one-size fits all approach, flexibility is critical to successfully adapting to market changes.

“As New Zealand’s fastest growing telco, we’re in a capital-intensive game and need to work with partners that are prepared to work in the best way that works for us and our clients. With its scale, experience and razor-sharp focus on partner success, nobody does it quite like Westcon-Comstor. During COVID Westcon-Comstor upped the ante and adapted its services to fit our specific needs.”

Callum McGregor, CFO of Westcon-Comstor commented: “The market has an obvious desire for subscription-based consumption models, but to offer this is no mean feat. We’ve designed Flex to best serve both vendors and partners. With Flex, partners unlock greater vendor discounts by increasing the deal size and maximising the value they get for their budget early on.

“Because we don’t use third party billing providers, partners deal with us in the exact same way that they would with any “standard” purchase. Plus, they can match payments in with payments out, so the customer gets exactly what they want, how they want it, without impacting the partner or vendor’s cash flow.

With over 90% of tech companies now embracing consumption business models, according to EY, Flex will help all our channel partners and vendors take full advantage of subscription models and capitalise on the direction that the industry is headed.”