The roots of this phenomenon go back to the spike in IT purchasing in 1999, when the Y2K problem let many companies to spend more on IT and replace systems earlier than planned.

To compensate many extended their write-off period on these systems to four years or more, and are now stuck with slow machines that still run Microsoft Windows 98 or even 95. They're missing out on the benefits of today's productivity and collaboration tools because of a four-year-old financial decision.

What these users probably don't realise is that these machines are still costing them money through the write down of that initial capital investment.

It's not perceived as such, because it doesn't affect cash flow, but depreciation of ageing equipment is a real cost to their business. Moreover, the falling cost of equipment means that the book value of even a three year old PC compares unfavourably to the current price of a brand new model.

When all costs are taken into account, users who are suffering with these older, slower machines may not even be saving money.

HP, together with Microsoft and Intel, realised that there was a need, not just to educate the market about this, but to make it really easy for customers to replace their old equipment.

Together they created Clearway, a programme which not only allows customers to understand the true cost of their existing IT investment, but also offers a simple and compelling financial package which replaces old equipment with new at little or no additional cost.

There are two elements to Clearway.

The first is a subsidy from HP, Microsoft and Intel to buy back the old equipment from the customer at its current residual book value.

The second is to provide the new equipment on a monthly lease which translates the capital investment into a simple monthly payment, with all the tax advantages that entails.

In many cases, and particularly with equipment purchased in 1999 or 2000, this payment is on a par with the cost of writing down the old equipment.

Many customers are currently thinking of replacing a desktop with a notebook, or upgrading from a notebook to a tablet.

They'd like to explore the advantages of new technologies like broadband and wireless, but don't think they can afford to do this until their exiting system reaches the end of the line.

With Clearway, it actually pays users to bring forward their replacement, because the book value and consequent cash back is bigger. Once users realise that they can have access to the new technology they want now, without making a massive capital investment or ramping up revenue costs the argument about whether or not to upgrade becomes something of a 'no-brainer'.

David Smith, UK & Ireland SMB Manager, Hewlett Packard

For further information on HP Clearway contact Susanne or Paul on 0845 1 30 40 60 (local rates apply) or email us at finance@readycrest.co.uk