John Dodge Hayes has worked as a financial IT analyst for more than 40 years.
“One thing that’s consistent is the constant change in the industry,” he says. “The industry reinvents itself continuously.”
Hayes says we’re currently in a paradigm shift. More companies are purchasing their IT as-a-service. This is a result of customers wanting to consume IT without having to buy the hardware and software that goes along with it. They want out of the operations business and the elasticity to scale capacity up and down with the touch of a button, paying as they go. Most of all, companies want more confidence and value in their options. Seeing these needs in their customers, HPE ramped up its offerings to provide a more efficient and valuable hybrid cloud service with GreenLake.
“I’ve been waiting for one company to take advantage of what makes the IT industry different and capture that in one offering for customers,” Hayes says. “I honestly think HPE has come the closest with its GreenLake service.”
In a recent presentation, Hayes discussed three ways HPE GreenLake, managed through Advizex, provides financial value for customers.
Better, faster, cheaper technology – automatically
With IT technology changing quickly, there will always be a way to do things better, faster and cheaper. When purchasing IT equipment outright, keeping up can be costly and many companies run the risk of their technology growing obsolete too soon.
“Buying IT equipment is probably the worst thing you can do,” Hayes says. “Purchasing IT as-a-service keeps you up to date without costing nearly as much.”
GreenLake allows customers to purchase IT capacity on a per-unit basis according to their current and future requirements. Statements of work include pre-determined pricebands that decrease 10 to 12% with each step up. GreenLake commits to these prices, allowing companies to understand their spending upfront and predict budgeting for as many as five years down the road.
, It’s like going to the marketplace every year or two and getting better, cheaper technology at a lower price, Hayes says. , There’s no other agreement that automatically does that for you.””
Money in the bank to invest in your business
When you’re looking at buying something today versus spreading payments out over time, consider the present value of money.
“Money in hand is inherently more valuable than money in the future,” Hayes says. “It’s the old proverb, ‘A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.’”
You can use this philosophy when assessing at your IT needs. Say, you’re looking at a $100,000 IT project. You can pay for it entirely upfront or make payments of $20,000 for five years. With the latter, you still have $80,000 in the bank to invest in your business and get a return, making money on money.
Bruce Feldman channel sales manager at HPE, explains that eliminating a large upfront IT cost allows GreenLake customers to improve their financials.
“Since cash is king right now, our customers can flex up and down with predictable costs,” he says. “They can use the money they would spend upfront in the traditional model to drive other parts of their business to lower IT costs and improve cash flow.”
Avoid overprovisioning
“One of the truisms of the industry is that people tend to buy a lot more than they need,” Hayes says. They don’t want to have to go back to the well and get another budget increase and approval.”
However, HPE GreenLake incorporates a simple change order process built into the statement of work, which allows easily adding capacity as your business requires and tapping into new IT technology as the market evolves. GreenLake also automatically includes a 20% buffer to accommodate increased capacity at any time.
“Change is the game,” Hayes says. “Instead of worrying about having enough IT in five years, GreenLake allows you to think about what you need today and then easily grow along with it. Avoiding over-provisioning is going to save you money right out of the gate.”
Other financial benefits
GreenLake provides some additional notable financial benefits.
- GreenLake is not a leasing service and can be classified as a normal operating expense for accounting purposes. Considering the new lease accounting standard ASC 842, it’s a benefit for companies to avoid property and sales taxes and extra paperwork.
- As an enterprise platform, GreenLake Central serves as a management and monitoring platform while providing business analytics about current and future IT use and costs.
- GreenLake is happy to upcycle or acquire your existing assets for metering or upgrading. Customers receive cash based on book value. Partnering with Advizex allows additional options such as holding these funds in an escrow account to cover your GreenLake bill.
“GreenLake is what you want it to be,” Hayes says. “Working with Advizex allows even more flexibility with managed services and payments so we can do some really wonderful things for our customers.”
Businesses can find value in HPE GreenLake and Advizex no matter where they sit vertically or horizontally.
“Customers have benefitted in healthcare, education, financing, manufacturing and more,” Steve Kucker VP and GM of Advizex summarizes. “From edge to cloud, it can all come to you in a predictive, private-use solution that will only benefit your bottom line.”