You've heard us talk about the move from the Information Age to the digital age and how the rapid change associated with this movement will transform the way business is done at a global scale.

The primary driver for this revolution will be The Internet of Everything (IoE)-the next big phase of the Internet. Poised to generate over$19 trillion in value at stake for businesses and countries over the next decade, IoE encompasses shifts in computing such as big data, cloud, BYOD and mobility, and a new breed of software applications that will increasingly strain enterprise and service provider networks alike.

To become industry disruptors and take full advantage of the Internet of Everything, organizations will need to rethink how they do business. They will need to reimagine the role technology plays in their business and make it a strategic asset.

In my role as President of Cisco Capital, the captive finance business within Cisco, I speak with customers and partners globally of all sizes, across different markets and that have different business needs. In almost every conversation, a common challenge arises -how do they to do more with less and keep pace with technology innovation? It's a good question, and one that doesn't have a one-size-fits all answer.

I encourage them to first think about the desired outcome -determine what business problem they want to solve and explain how technology financing can be used as one of the core components in the plan to achieve it. Through a well-thought-out financing strategy, companies can retain the necessary funds to advance day-to-day business operations, but also make critical growth investments that enable customers and partners to more effectively manage their balance sheets.

By leveraging financing, organizations can mitigate the underlying cost of acquiring the technologies needed to build a future-ready IT infrastructure that harnesses IoE, while also allowing them to optimize their investment. Benefits can be realized in a number of ways, including:

• Preserving cashthat can be reinvested into the business. Technology financing (or Financing) spreads the cost of an IT investment over time, conserving funds, enabling organizations to invest more heavily in areas such as R&D, and ultimately accelerating the pace of innovation.
• Accelerating ROIby aligning cash outlay to solution implementation and revenue stream generation.
• Flexible consumption modelsmake it possible to only pay for what you use, a new concept in technology hardware financing. For example, Cisco Capital offers Open Pay financing that allows customers to acquire solutions that will allow for growth over time or on demand and that also can meet peak demands made possible as usage is metered, reported and invoiced.
• Creating a lifecycle management strategyallows organizations to refresh assets by returning them at the end of term and replacing with current or new technology, while adhering to a consistent payment structure. This approach can help customers combat technology obsolescence and acquire new technologies as needed faster with flexible financing options.
• "Greening" the business and meeting cost objectivesby bringing in programs such as Cisco Refresh as part of a blended solution, which helps customers meet financial requirements when new products are not an option or in order to implement a lifecycle management strategy.

It's clear that IoE will drastically reshape business across nearly every industry. During this dynamic time, change is the only constant. Choosing how to invest in technology is just as important as choosing the right solution during this critical transition. By employing a strategy that incorporates and leverages captive vendor financing, companies can become more agile and keep pace with market changes.