But the government actually has a lot of flexibility with leasing, vendors said. Hamm claims, however, that leasing actually helps agencies with their budgeting because it offers them the ability to do some forward planning. Welcome Refresh Leasing can ease budget planning, particularly in the area of upgrading old equipment. The ease of technical refresh, in general, is the reason most often cited for agencies to lease desktop IT equipment. Leasing allows them access to the best available equipment on current-year funds.
Some leases require a technology refresh every year, others on a less frequent basis.
In either case, agencies can build the cost of that refresh into the lease up front so that it is paid over the term of the contract rather than in one large chunk. Some agencies require that vendors provide them with the latest equipment on a regular basis so that the agencies can test the equipment and pass their own judgment on how the equipment measures up. The contract language says we will refresh up to the commercially accepted state of the art. Sometimes, technology refresh can produce blazingly fast turnover. After just eight months of Unisys' lease contract with ATF, for example, the agency was already into a third iteration of laptop PC technology.