We primarily finance IT equipment, including accessories and software, communication-related equipment, and medical equipment. We may also finance industrial machinery and equipment, office furniture and general office equipment, transportation equipment, and other general business equipment. We offer our solutions both directly and through vendors.

We participate in the large and growingsell IT market with specific focussolutions focusing on the data center, network, cloud, security, virtualization, and mobility segments of the industry, facilitated by our professional and managed service solutions. We believe we are well positioned in the complex high-growth IT solutions segmentprimarily target our sales efforts toward middle-market and can achieve outsized growth relative to the overall IT market.

We have a broad and diverse customer base of over 3,1003,500 customers across a wide range of end markets. We serve a wide range of end markets,end-markets, including education, financial services, healthcare, media and entertainment, state and local government, technology, and telecommunications.

We believe we are a trusted IT advisor, delivering differentiated products and services to enable our customers to meet increasingly complex IT requirements. We are able to provide complete, turn-key solutions servingaligned to the entire IT lifecycle – procurement, products, services, software, and financing. We provide upfront assessments, design and configuration capabilities, installation and implementation, and ongoing services to support our customers’ solutions.

We believe our customers choose us for their complex IT infrastructure needs based on our track record of delivering best-of-breed solutions, value-added services, and close relationships with both established and emerging vendors. We focus on obtaining and maintaining top-level engineering certifications and professional services expertise in advanced technologies of strategic vendors that we leverage to help our customers achieve positive business outcomes. We have over 650 employees that collectively hold approximately 2,200 certification titles, across more than 60 vendors, with a heavy concentration in our top vendors.

We believe our relationships with vendors focused on the designexpertise across both Data Center and integration of cloud systemsCloud architectures allows us to provide differentiated market-leadingofferings in assisting our customers with their journey to the cloud. Combined with our established practices in Networking and Security, we are uniquely poised to help customers adopt a multi-cloud strategy utilizing our cloud offerings.cost management framework to help overcome the inherent challenges. We have developed long standing,leverage our strategic partnerships with leading cloud systems vendors includingsuch as Amazon Web Services, Cisco Systems, Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft Azure, NetApp, and VMware.VMware in conjunction with our professional, managed and lifecycle services to help our customers achieve their desired business outcomes.

We view acquisitions as an important factor in our strategic growth plan. Since 1997, we have successfully identified and integrated 19nearly 30 acquisitions. Most recently, we have been active in tuck-in acquisitions to broaden our product offerings, sector reach, and geographic footprint, with recent acquisitions including:footprint.

We seamlesslygenerally integrate acquired firms into the ePlusePlus platform immediately, which allows us to maintain customers and vendor relationships, and retain key employees from acquired firms, and accelerate growth.

We continue to review new acquisition opportunities to growexpand our global footprint and expand our offerings.

We have focused on achieving top-line revenue growth while maintaining industry-leading gross margins – with a compound annual growth rate of 10.9%4.2% on net sales and 10.7%7.0% for consolidated gross profit, respectively, from April 1, 2011fiscal year 2017 to March 31, 2016.fiscal year 2021.

Through our organic expansion as well asand acquisitions, we have increased our employee base by 48%33.0% from April 1, 2011March 31, 2017 to March 31, 2016 while increasing revenue per employee by approximately 13%. Our2021. The increase in our employee base has largely been in customer facing roles.roles, which represented 92.5% of the total increase in headcount over the same period, as we continue to build our sales and services team while leveraging our operational infrastructure.

We seek to become the primary provider of IT solutions and flexible financing solutions for each of our customers, by delivering IT solutions whether on-premise, cloud, hybrid or managed services-based. We strive to provide excellent customer service, pricing, availability, and advanced professional and managed services in an efficient manner. We believe the increasing complexity of the IT ecosystem and the emergence of new technologies, vendors, licensing, and vendorsservice options are factors that will lead to a growing demand from existing customers. We continue to focus on improving our sales efficiency by providing on-going training and targeted incentive compensation, as well as implementing better automation processes to reduce costs and improve productivity.have many experienced pre-sales engineers who engage with customers about the most advanced technologies. Our account executives are trained on our broad solutions capabilities andwith access to many, category-focused subject-matter experts, which allow them to sell in a consultative business outcome-based manner that increases the likelihood of cross-selling our solutions. Our account executives are supported by experienced and professional inside sales representatives. We believe that our bundled offerings are an important differentiating factor from our competitors. We also have experienced pre-sales engineers and inside sales representatives to support our outside sales representatives.

We focus on gaining top-level engineering certifications and professional services expertise in advanced technologies of strategic vendors. This expertise helps our customers develop their cloud capabilities including private, public, and hybrid infrastructures. We are providing virtual desktop infrastructure, unified communications, collaboration, networking, security, storage, big-data, mobility, converged and hyper-converged infrastructures, and managed services offerings, all of which remain in high demand. We believe our ability to deliver advanced professional services provides benefits in two ways. First, we gain recognition and mindshare of our strategic vendor partners and become the “go-to” partner in selected regional markets as well as the national market. This significantly increases direct and referral sales opportunities for our products and services and allows us to offer competitive pricing levels. Second, within our existing and potential customer base, our advanced professional services are a key differentiator against competitors who cannot provide services or advanced services for these key technologies or across multiple vendor product lines.

We continuously offer best-of-breed solutions to provide our clients with next generation capabilities. During the last fiscal year, we have expanded ourOur managed services offeringsportfolio expanded this year to include Managed Flashstack, hybrid ITSDWAN, Service Desk, Carrier Expense Management, Cloud Cost Optimization, Vulnerability Management as a Service (VMaas), Managed UCM, Hyperflex, Nutanix and Aruba monitoring services, and managed video services.management. We have further increased our breadth and depth of engineering expertise through the integration of recent acquisitions, supplementing our Cisco service offerings, expanding our Netapp SSC/EMS portfolio, and security solutions releases. We have also enhanced our Managed Services and consolidated all ePlus annuity-based service solutions into a single service management platform to enhance customer experience. Likewise, we have increased automation of Service Level Target reporting to ensure remediation and response are top-of-mind.

Based on our prior experience, capital structure, and business systems and processes, we believe we are well positioned to take advantage of hiringhire experienced sales people and engineers, and make strategic acquisitions that expand our customer facing talent, broaden our customer base, expand our geographic reach, scale our existing operating structure, and/or enhance our product and service offerings. Part of our growth strategy is to hire purposefully and evaluateenhance our technical and skill base through strategic hiring opportunities ifacquisitions. Once recruited, we believe that that our culture, competitive performance-based compensation, policies and when they become available. During the year ended March 31, 2016, as partlabor practices contribute to strong relations with our employees. We offer a range of affordable and flexible benefits options to assist with health and well-being. As our expansion strategy, our customer facing salesemployees are an important resource to us, we invest in their ongoing professional development. Our education program provides financial support for employees who want to participate in undergraduate and graduate studies, continuing education, skill building including technical certifications, and other professional services team grew from 712enrichment related to 799.their position with ePlus.

We focus our sales and marketing efforts on becoming the primary provider of IT solutions for each of our customers and by seekingcustomers. We actively seek to acquire new account relationships through face-to-face field sales andpersonal relationships, electronic commerce, leveraging our partnerships with manufacturersvendors and targeted direct marketingdemand-generation activities to increase awareness of our solutions. We target enterprises, primarily middle market companies with annual revenues between $20 million and $2.5 billionmiddle-market and large companies. We believe there are over 50,000 potential customers in the middle marketcommercial entities and westate and local governments, and educational institution. We currently have over 3,1003,500 customers. We undertake direct marketing and leverage digital marketing and social media campaigns to target certain markets in conjunction with our primary vendor partners, who may provide financial reimbursement, outsourced services, and personnel to assist us in these efforts.

As of March 31, 2016,2021, we employed 1,074a total of 1,560 employees, who operated through 32 office locations, home officesincluding 1,510 in the US, 18 in the United Kingdom, 30 in India, and customer sites. No2 in Singapore. We believe we have a good relationship with our employees, and none are represented by a labor unionunion.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Chief Executive Officer introduced the motto of “Be Safe, Be Smart, and we believeBe Kind.” to convey the timeless qualities that embody the culture we have good relationsspent 30 years building and have been even more important during this past year. Through our Code of Conduct, policies, our training, and the everyday actions of our leadership, we expect our employees to treat each other, our customers, and all our business partners consistent with the “Be Safe, Be Smart, Be Kind” motto, with respect and equality for all persons.

Corporate social responsibility is also an important part of our employees. culture and focus efforts around supporting the communities in which we live and work. A sample of our efforts include participating in One Tree Planted, Habitat for Humanity, and Be the Match. Since 2017, we have sponsored GRIT: Girls Re-Imagining Tomorrow in partnership with Cisco Systems, Inc. GRIT exists for the sole purpose of introducing diverse groups of middle school girls to technology-focused career possibilities, with an emphasis on cyber security and artificial intelligence.

The functional areas of our employees are as follows:

Mark P. Marron, joined us became the Chief Executive Officer and President of ePlus inc. on August 1, 2016. He began his career at ePlus in 2005 as Senior Vice President of Sales. Mr. Marron was appointed asSales and became Chief Operating Officer in 2010. A 30-year plus industry veteran, he was formerly with NetIQ where he held the position of ePlus inc. andSenior Vice President of ePlus Technology, inc. in 2010. Prior to joining us, from 2001-2005, Mr. Marron served as senior vice president of worldwide salesWorldwide Sales and services of NetIQ.Services. Prior to joining NetIQ, Mr. Marron served as senior vice president and general managerGeneral Manager of worldwide channel salesWorldwide Channel Sales for Computer Associates International Inc., a provider of software and services that enables organizations to manage their IT environments. Mr. Marron has extensive experience throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and holds a Bachelor’sBachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Montclair State University.

Elaine D. Marion joined us in 1998. Ms. Marion became our Chief Financial Officer on September 1, 2008. From 2004 to 2008, Ms. Marion served as our Vice President of Accounting. Prior to that, she was the Controller of ePlusePlus Technology, inc., a subsidiary of ePlus,ePlus, from 1998 to 2004. Ms. Marion currently serves on the Advisory Board of the School of Business at the University of Mary Washington and as chair of the George Mason University School of Business Dean’s Advisory Council. Ms. Marion is a graduate of George Mason University, where she earned a Bachelor’sBachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting.

Darren S, Raigueljoined usthe company in June 1997. On September 1, 2008, he1997as an account executive and has held numerous management positions in the organization for well over a decade. Mr. Raiguel became our SeniorExecutive Vice President of Business Operations. Prior to that, he served as our Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining us, Mr. Mencarini was Controller of the Technology Management Group of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). Mr. Mencarini joined CSCSales, and in 1991 as Director of Finance andMay 2018 was promoted to Controller in 1996.Chief Operating Officer of ePlus inc. and President of ePlus Technology, inc. Mr. Mencarini is a graduate of the University of Maryland andRaiguel received a MastersBachelor of TaxationBusiness Administration degree from AmericanTemple University, with dual majors in 1985.Marketing and Finance. He has participated in numerous industry organizations, councils, and advisory boards throughout his career.

The loss of the services by our executive officers or senior management andand/or failure to successfully implement a succession plan could disrupt management of our business and impair the execution of our business strategies. We believe that our success depends in part upon our ability to retain the services of our executive officers and senior management and successfully implement a succession plan. Our executive officers have been instrumentalare at the forefront in determining our strategic direction and focus. The loss of our executive officers’ and senior management’s services without replacement by qualified successors could adversely affect our ability to effectively manage effectively our overall operations and successfully execute current or future business strategies and could cause other instability within our workforce.

We have configuration centers in the future. US and third-party providers in the UK and Netherlands. The configuration centers contain inventory owned by us and our customers, which serve as distribution centers for orders, as we do not drop ship directly to the customer. We perform services in those warehouses such as product configuration services, and warehouse and logistics services. If the configuration centers were to be seriously damaged or disrupted by a natural disaster or other adverse event, including disruption related to political or social unrest, we could utilize another distribution center or third-party distributors to ship products to our customers. However, this may not be sufficient to avoid interruptions in our service and may not enable us to meet all of the needs of our customers and would cause us to incur incremental operating costs. In addition, we operate in facilities which may contain both business-critical data and confidential information of our customers and third parties, such as data center colocation and hosted solution partners. A natural disaster or other adverse event at locations such as these or third-party provider locations could negatively impact our business, results of operations or cash flows.

In December 2015, we purchased 100% of the stock of IGXGlobal UK Ltd.We have several foreign subsidiaries and conduct business in January 2016 we created IGX Capital UK, Ltd., both of which are formedvarious countries and operate in the United Kingdom.currencies. As result of this U.K. presence,these foreign operations, we have additional exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency rates resultsresulting primarily from the translation exposure associated with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. We also have a Canadian subsidiary, ePlus Canada Company. While our consolidated financial statements are reported in U.S.US dollars, the financial statements of our subsidiaries outside the U.S.US are prepared using the local currency as the functional currency and translated into U.S.US dollars. As a result, fluctuations in the exchange rate of the U.S.US dollar relative to the localfunctional currencies of our international subsidiaries in Canada and the United Kingdom could cause fluctuations in our results of operations. Our operations in foreign countries are insignificant. We also have foreign currency exposure to the extent net sales and purchases are not denominated in a subsidiary’s functional currency, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.

The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that third-party securities analysts publish about us and our industry. One or more analysts could downgrade our common stock, or issue other negative commentary about us or our industry. If one or more of the analysts that coverspublish research about us cease coverage, we could lose visibility in the market or such discontinuance may be viewed negatively by the market. As a result of one or more of these factors, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

If, in the future, we decide to issue debt or equity securities that rank senior to our common stock, it is likely that such securities will be governed by an indenture or other instrument containing covenants restricting our operating flexibility. Additionally, any convertible or exchangeable securities that we issue in the future may have rights, preferences, and privileges more favorable than those of our common stock and may result in dilution to owners of our common stock. We and, indirectly, our stockholders, will bear the cost of issuing and servicing such securities. Because our decision to issue debt or equity securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, or nature of our future offerings, if any. Thus, holders of our common stock will bear the risk of our future offerings reducing the market price of our common stock and diluting the value of their stock holdings in our common stock.