IBM Flashwatch Guarantee – The Car Buyers Guide to Buying Storage
IBM Flashwatch Guarantee
More than nine in 10 privately purchased new cars bought in the past 12 months were paid for through some sort of finance deal, according to new data.
Figures from the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) showed that 91 percent of new private cars were financed by its members in the 12 months to the end of April.
I had a brief conversation before Christmas with Tony Cummings from our distribution partner Arrow. Tony makes sure we, Chilli, are kept up to speed with all things IBM and plays a valuable role in connecting us with IBM announcements, promotions etc. We briefly touched on IBM FlashWatch and I had to admit that I rarely use it to introduce storage to new customers and tend to casually mention elements of it as discussions progress. It doesn’t lead a sale but plays more of a supportive role. Having thought a little more about this I don’t think it is getting the airtime it deserves.
So what exactly is it and what does it have to do with cars?
The IBM FlashWatch Guarantee is a program that supports the IBM FlashSystem Family of products with a number of guarantees. This is not a product you have to purchase, there is no hidden costs, it is available to all customers who purchase an IBM FlashSystem. I am not going to try and cover every element it delivers as it would take too long and anyhow most of it is self explanatory. In the graphic below you can clearly see what the program offers, for the purpose of this article I want to focus on an element that we rarely discuss, IBM Flash Momentum.
Back to cars then….
If we all agree the opening statement in italics is correct then I guess it is fair to assume we have all, at some point or other, purchased a car using finance. Be that a hire purchase, personal contract plan or personal loan it is something that is universally accepted as a way of purchasing a car. So why not apply this to storage using the IBM Flash Momentum Storage Upgrade Program (yes, it needs a catchier title). Drilling down into the offering gives us the Car Buyers Guide to Buying Storage.
How does it work?
We work together and identify the right solution. We then ask IBM Global Finance (IGF) to arrange financing for the product on a 3 year term.
After 2.5 years we have a decision to make…. Keep the storage, refresh or walk away.
The refresh is delivered in two ways. You can upgrade your existing product which provides an ‘equivalent’ system for which you will pay the same price or less on your IGF finance. Or you can configure a new product, bigger or smaller, and adjust the monthly price accordingly.
Combine this with the No Cost Migration offering and you can run both systems side by side for 90 days allowing a seamless migration.
Upgrading the initial product within the first 3 years is not a problem. Additional storage, cache etc. can be added and the monthly price will be adjusted to accommodate this. At the end of the term you can still choose a new product
This all sounds familiar doesn’t it? We don’t hesitate to use the same buying format when buying a car so why should a storage unit be any different. The best thing about this though, there is no mileage penalty. You can drive this storage as hard as you like safe in the knowledge that IBM FlashWatch has you covered.