Computer-services provider IBM is offering $4bn in new credit to customers through its business partners in a bid to support client spending.
The current financing through IBM Global Financing is expected to assist its clients in purchasing new technologies including cloud, analytics and PureSystems.
To further support the move, IBM has also developed a new mobile application that will enable partners to approve their clients for contracts of about $500,000 in less time through any mobile device anytime, anywhere.
IBM will manage the loans over a period of 12 months through its global financing unit, which administered about $36bn in assets as of 2011.
IBM Global Business Partners & Midmarket GM Mark Hennessy said finding capital for a new business or idea is almost always challenging.
"As a result, the gap between a promising vision and a business reality appears to be even more of an unbridgeable chasm," Hennessy said.
"With this effort, IBM aims to provide the right foundation and resources to our global ecosystem of partners and clients to ensure that businesses, large and small, have access to the right technologies for success."
This initiative follows the $1bn in financing which the firm made available through IBM Business Partners for small and midsize businesses in 2011, resulting in 6,800 global firms deploying the obtained in just 12 months over an expected 18 months.
