Resellers caught up in EOFY frenzy

As the 2015 financial year drew to an end, disties and resellers reported increased business in the final month, thanking the federal government's new $20,000 "accelerated depreciation" for the boost.

"I have been through end of financial year when there's been a big rush – but this is off the hook," said Ben Corbett, director of Adelaide solutions provider LeetGeek. "The changes in the budget have resulted in an absolute flood of impulsive IT purchasing decisions."

In May, federal treasurer Joe Hockey announced that small businesses – with annual turnover of less than $2 million – could immediately claim depreciation on assets costing less than $20,000 per item, for an unlimited number of items. The $20,000 limit for "accelerated depreciation" is up from the old $1,000 threshold.

Corbett noted that the demand was high even though his staff don't proactively push hardware and would never sell something "just because someone asks for it".

"The biggest fear for us would be to ensure that due diligence is applied," Corbett told CRN. "Just because someone says they want to spend all their money now, doesn't mean we won't still apply due diligence to ensure what we sell is appropriate to them."

The end of financial year fervour has seen disties stretched to keep up with demand, according to the boss of the Apple specialist.

"Some of these requests are pretty large. When we phone the disties and ask for a quick turnaround, they are saying, 'You are not only ones'," said Corbett.

Synnex Australia marketing manager Chi-Wing Chan agreed that the tax depreciation initiative "has had a significant impact".

"Yes, it's definitely very busy," he said, while noting that many SMB customers and resellers would have stocked earlier in June, rather than waiting until the last minute.

Chan told CRN that the enterprise channel was not the big contributor to the EOFY scramble in 2015.

"The sales team has seen the rush from the retail side – more retail orders because of the tax break," said Chan, adding that a big seller has been imaging and printing – a primarily retail category.

Synnex has launched an e-commerce platform for its channel to complement the high-tech western Sydney warehouse that was opened by federal communications minister Malcolm Turnbull last August.

"A lot of resellers now transact with our e-commerce portal, which is ready 24-7. Ordering is very smooth," Chan said.

Online technology reseller Mwave.com.au started a marketing campaign in May immediately following the Budget, to encourage customers to take advantage of the depreciation acceleration. The move seems to have paid off.

"June has been very busy – a really good month," chief executive Victor Lee told CRN. "The $20,000 tax break had definitely [boosted] corporate orders."

While Lee did not want to speculate on June sales numbers before the month actually ended, he estimated "minimum of 30 percent growth" compared with EOFY period last year.

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