Device as a Service: A smarter way to equip your team.

Today, the cost of supporting and maintaining devices in the workplace over three to five years significantly exceeds the acquisition cost. Wouldn’t it be great if you could forecast and manage those support and maintenance expenses in a predictable and consistent way?

Like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a- Service (IaaS) offerings, the Zones Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) program offers businesses a way to get the technology and services they need on a monthly subscription basis, freeing up capital and providing the flexibility to upgrade, downgrade, scale, and alter underlying components during the term of the agreement.

With DaaS, organizations can combine devices from manufacturers such as Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft Surface (desktops, notebooks, tablets, smartphones, etc.) as well as all related software, accessories, peripherals, professional and managed services, and accidental damage protection under a single, flexible agreement at a convenient and transparent per-user, per-month subscription rate.

From a business standpoint, DaaS offers advantages that financing and leasing simply cannot. Beyond freeing up capital for use in other strategic initiatives, DaaS lets you outsource configuration, deployment, and lifecycle services, freeing up staff to focus on core objectives. With DaaS, the business wins, IT wins, and workers win.

DaaS also brings an accounting advantage to the table. Under the new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) lease accounting standards, entities are required to separate the lease and nonlease components. Nonlease components are typically managed support services such as help desk. With DaaS, both assets and services can be included, making it a more attractive financial instrument for many businesses.

When structuring your DaaS agreement, your Zones account executive will work with our finance department to present you with options about financing your subscriptions, either through Zones or through a partner program.

While Zones DaaS subscriptions are available with 12-, 24-, and 36-month terms, businesses have more flexibility to trade up over the life of the subscription. Of course, the cost of a new device may affect the overall subscription rate to a degree, but the real benefit is not being locked into a lease on equipment you’re unhappy with.

That flexibility also applies to the software running on devices. For example, if you took delivery of 1,000 tablets loaded with existing subscriptions but found that only 60 percent of your team actually used the package, you could cancel the 400 subscriptions and receive a rate reduction reflecting the change. That would not happen under a lease. To help customers make the most of a DaaS agreement, Zones can conduct a DaaS Assessment that will help identify the best fleet of devices and software according to user roles and business needs.

When it’s time to refresh devices at the end of the subscription term, there are no “dollar buyouts” or disposition issues to worry about; you simply return the devices or choose to continue the subscription at a predetermined monthly rate.

For complete details on the Zones DaaS program, reach out to your Zones account executive, who will be happy to walk you through your options.

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2018 edition of Solutions by Zones magazine.

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