Published : 6 years ago, on 12/06/2018

• 85% believe they never overpay for ITequipment
• 1 in 3 believe they get good deals on IT

THE VAST majority of managers in charge of procuring business ITbelieve they never overpay when making a purchase.

A survey of 200 IT buyers and 74 suppliers published in a report by ITproducts, services and solutions marketplace, Probrand.co.uk, also revealed that as many as 1 in 3 think they are getting good deals when it comes to buying IT.

However in stark contrast to these findings, separate and independent research* revealed that IT buyers actually pay an average mark-up of 18% on IT hardware, and up to 1992% in some extreme cases.

This is significantly higher than the 3% advisory mark-up recommended by the Society of IT Managers (Soctim).

Matt Royle, marketing director at Probrand.co.uk, said: “It’s clear to see that despite the overwhelming majority of IT buyers believing they never overpay for equipment – many work really hard to get what they think are good deals from their suppliers. This is a worry; IT buyers aren’t getting the transparency they demand and suggests that the majority of suppliers are overcharging and adding unnecessarily high mark ups on IT products and services.

“It also indicates that the complexity of the IT supply chain is preventing some special discounts, offered by distributors and vendors, from getting through to IT buyers.

Royle continues: “As such, we would encourage IT buyers to challenge their suppliers to be open and transparent with their margins, bearing in mind a 3% benchmark.  I’d also urge buyers to look at new ways of buying IT that promote transparency and competition across suppliers, and reduce time wasted manually sourcing and comparing prices and stock levels.”

For more information and to read the report findings, please visit:https://www.probrand.co.uk/blog/pb/Is-the-B2B-IT-market-broken

Probrand is the UK’s first marketplace for business IT, providing ITProducts, managed IT services and IT solutions.  It takes the hassle and cost out of buying and selling IT.  Find out more at www.Probrand.co.uk.