CompuCom Announces Apple Device-As-A-Service Offering For Macs, iPhones And iPads

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CompuCom Systems on Thursday announced the launch of a Device-as-a-Service offering for Apple hardware, even as pioneers in the nascent category such as HP Inc. report strong traction.

Fort Mill, S.C.-based CompuCom, which was acquired in 2017 by Office Depot, said it will charge a monthly subscription fee to deliver managed services, consulting and user support for Apple devices including Mac computers, iPhones and iPad tablets.

[Related: HP President Alex Cho On Making Millennial-Friendly PCs And Why It's A 'Scale Year' For Device-As-A-Service]

The announcement comes just after CRN reported HP Inc. is seeking to dramatically expand its Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) business with the help of channel partners. HP’s DaaS offering includes access to Apple devices.

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This week, HP personal systems president Alex Cho told CRN that he expects HP's DaaS business--which pairs device leases with advanced analytics for proactive maintenance--will have a breakout year in 2019.

"This is the year we're going to scale" in DaaS, Cho said. "The value for IT and end users is real. We're seeing ongoing demonstration and proof points."

Skip Tappen, CEO at NWN, an HP partner based in Waltham, Mass., told CRN that "we're certainly continuing to pursue" DaaS--though it’s at an earlier stage of maturity and acceptance than managed print services.

"But I've talked with the team, and we're all pretty excited” about DaaS, Tappen said. “Hopefully 2019 will be the year of DaaS. There will definitely be a significant uptick on a lot of the things we've been talking about so far."

For CompuCom's Apple DaaS offering, devices can be leased for 24, 36 or 48 months. CompuCom will provide hardware asset management, procurement, configuration, deployment, technical support, end-user support and end-of-life disposition, the company said.

Attracting the best talent in 2019 "entails offering a choice of devices that boost performance and that are secure and easy to support," said Ken Jackowitz, CompuCom's chief product and marketing officer, in a news release. CompuCom’s Apple DaaS offering "brings our customers a seamless end-to-end solution that addresses employee demand," Jackowitz said.

The move is also the latest in Apple's push to gain more enterprise business. In November, Apple CFO Luca Maestri pointed to "great progress in the enterprise market" such as an increase in IBM MobileFirst for iOS deals—which provide iOS business apps that leverage both Apple and IBM technologies, and which now has 240 "large" customers.

Maestri also pointed to Apple's recent addition of Salesforce to its list of strategic partnerships. The agreement is seeing the two companies team up to give Salesforce and related apps a more-optimal experience on iOS. Other enterprise partnerships that Apple has launched or expanded over the past few years include Cisco, SAP, Accenture and Deloitte.