How to Know if DaaS is Right for Your Business

Over the last several blogs we have looked at what Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) is, its benefits, and how it differs from leasing. DaaS is a growing area of interest for many businesses. For this blog, we will focus on ways to evaluate DaaS for your business.

Evaluating DaaS for Your Business

Here are four areas to look at when evaluating the return on investment and financial effects of DaaS:

1. Assess Your Endpoints

How many users do you have on your network? How many PCs, laptops and mobile devices will be under DaaS management? How many of those systems have passed or are nearing their support end of life? IT service providers, like MicroAge, have diagnostic tools that can be used to gather this information automatically or help your IT team gather this information and provide a report. Generally, the more those devices are nearing their end of life, the greater the savings your business can realize. This, in part, is due to the large capital expense that would have to be invested to update and properly secure your network, which under a DaaS model would change to a smaller monthly operating expense.

2. Determine the Full Extent of IT Support Costs

Over and above the capital expense of purchasing endpoints, the next biggest factor in finding savings from DaaS is streamlining and outsourcing endpoint support. The full cost of IT support for endpoint management is often difficult to determine. In analysing these costs, businesses are surprised at how much those costs are.  The growing complexity of applications and the increasing number of cyberattack threats keep adding to the IT workload.  Endpoint support costs go beyond deployment and lifecycle management, and include ensuring up-to-date operating systems and security patches, application updates and end-user awareness of security policies and requirements. Outsourcing endpoint support to an IT service provider can provide real cost savings to an organization and increases accountability for keeping everything up to date.

3. Consider the Risk of a Cybersecurity Breach

The vast majority of network breaches these days originate with an endpoint. Many compromises begin with clicking on phishing links, using default passwords, or using a machine without updated security or malware detection. The price for making such a mistake is increasing as cybercriminals become more and more adept at breaching businesses. Add to this the complexity of managing hybrid workforces, sometimes in the office, sometimes remote, and the risks multiply. Outsourcing endpoint support may be the easiest way to reduce the risk of a cyber security breach.

4. Look at the Cost of User Productivity

This is another one of those hidden costs that can be eye-opening when you dig in a little further. Using devices for the duration of their usable life makes good sense. But there is a point of diminishing returns and increased vulnerability. The computing landscape is in constant evolution, with new networking protocols, new applications and communication tools rolling out every month. As computers get older, latency and interoperability become a challenge. Users on older machines experience more delays in data processing, more dropped or interrupted video conference calls, and more frustration getting new applications to work as expected and required. These issues are not just a matter of users being frustrated, there is a real cost associated to aging equipment. You pay the same rate whether an employee is working with an optimized PC or one that is not, but the cost for an employee on slower equipment adds up quickly when you consider the true costs.

We should point out that although we have specifically talked about computers, the above evaluation can apply to other computing equipment in your business and a subscription model, such as DaaS can apply to other equipment withing your IT environment.

MicroAge can help evaluate whether a DaaS model for your IT environment or parts of it is right for your business.

Contact us today.