Tech Data Debuts Technology as a Service

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Tech Data’s launch, Tuesday, of Tech as a Service (TaaS), joins the expanding lineup of industry as-a-service offerings that partners can offer their customers. This latest service allows partners to bundle hardware, software and services into a single monthly subscription.

It’s also a rebranding of a legacy Avnet Technology Solution program called CapacityNow, which now falls under the TaaS umbrella. CapacityNow is an enterprise offering for data-center services such as metered compute and storage.

Tech Data’s Linda Rendleman

The new piece of today’s offering is endpoints, says Linda Rendleman, vice president of marketing, endpoint solutions at Tech Data.

“From the endpoint perspective, the partner has the capability to include hardware, software and services, whether they be their own services or Tech Data services, as part of the subscription,” she told us.

The range of products included in TaaS is broad. Virtually any vendor on the endpoint side can be included, i.e. premium machines, 2-in-one devices, workstations, desktops., etc.

“We wanted to bring to market something that aligned with how end customers buy, and … where we feel like this will have the most traction to begin with is in the small enterprise, midmarket space,” said Rendleman. “The value of a subscription offer is something that an end customer would not have to manage themselves; therefore, they can have an array of devices as well as kit out their conference rooms, add printers, etc, all under one subscription,” she added.

With subscription-based service models, partners get the benefit of expedited cash flow in the form of up-front, in-full payments, accelerated refresh cycle via automatic re-engagement, and expanded capabilities that deliver specialized services to drive productivity and decrease costs, Tech Data said.

The software – or SaaS – piece could be something such as Office 365. There’s been a strong initiative to attach software to a device sale, and that continues with TaaS. The services piece on the Tech Data side is capability that expanded significantly with the acquisition of Avnet Technology Solutions.

“We believe that our ability to deliver and own managed life-cycle services isn’t anything that our competitors can offer,” said Rendleman. “We’re looking to complement our partners in a way that helps them deliver more to their end customers.”

So, for example, if a partner has a customer that they can only service regionally, the partner could utilize Tech Data services to expand their capabilities and resources, and potentially go after a bigger piece of the overall opportunity.

Both Lenovo and Dell offer PC as a Service (PCaaS) that includes hardware, software and services in a single bundle. HP Inc. in September enhanced it’s HP Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) offering with more effective fleet management via the use of analytics and …