HP officially rolls out Device as a Service offering

HP Inc. on Thursday is officially rolling out its "Device as a Service" offering for enterprises, which aims to consolidate device acquisition and management -- all the way from the purchasing devices through managing their lifecycles until it's time to recycle them. The DaaS offering also includes analytics and optimization services, freeing up IT resources.

Packaging products and services in this way allows HP to provide more customized offerings while making sure its customers are getting the most out of their equipment, said Bill Avey, general manager & global head of Personal System Services.

"We truly believe that end users will be absolutely delighted. We also think IT will be delighted," he said, because "first and foremost their end users are more productive."

The new offering is being driven by customer demand, Avey said. Without spending a single dollar on advertising, HP actually already has customers using it in 20 countries.

Contracts are written on a per seat or per device basis, allowing for a "very clean and transparent cost model moving forward," Avey said.

The subscription would typically start with selecting devices, whether that means PCs, printers, point-of-sale devices or any other HP product. A contract can include any combination of services, including configuration and installation, data migration, onsite support and technology recycling.

"The real magic is the management and analytics portion that comes in with the 'as a service' model," Avey said. "When we talk to IT decision makers... we find they don't know what devices they have, they don't know where those devices are... how they're performing and whether they're meeting the end user's needs."

With a DaaS contract, HP can help IT teams monitor the performance of a fleet of devices. HP could also monitor factors like the battery life of devices. That would allow the company to pre-emptively ship users new batteries, not only helping customers but also helping HP better align its supply chains. By helping with recycling services, Avey said HP can help its customers avoid the security vulnerabilities that arise when old devices are left unattended.

DaaS is a multi-vendor offering, Avey said, meaning HP could take over its competitors' products and manage them or service them. It's also a multi-OS solution. HP is also offering flexibility in terms of how the hardware is procured -- for instance, it will accommodate customers who prefer to buy the hardware outright.