Computers

Dell adds new PC-as-a-Service with up to 300 units for SMBs

by  • 

Dell also rebrands the PC-as-a-Service offering they introduced last year as PC-as-a-Service for Enterprise, and also announces a new Dell Provisioning for VMware Workspace ONE service that is also available through both the SMB and Enterprise PCaaS.

Today at VMWorld in Las Vegas, Dell announced a large range of additional enhancements to their solutions which relate directly to their VMware subsidiary and their VMware portfolio. However, the company also announced some significant additions to their PC-as-a-Service offering. The offering introduced last year has been rebranded to PC-as-a-Service for Enterprise, and is aimed at customers looking for 300 units and up. Dell is also introducing a new offering, PCaaS for Business, which is focused on customers looking for between 20 and 300 units. Both are funded through Dell Financial Services, and both are fully available to channel partners, as well as to Dell’s direct team. In addition, a new Dell Provisioning for VMware Workspace ONE solution, which was also announced today, is available through both the PCaaS programs.

“Customers want two things in workforce transformation,” said Tom Ricoy, Director of Dell Solutions Product Management. “They want to be able to provide their users with a more delightful experience where they can be more productive. They are also saying they are spending a vast majority of their time on mundane, routine tasks that they have been doing for years, and want solutions to reduce the cost of their internal IT admins.”

Dell is meeting these requests with two separate announcements. The Dell Provisioning for VMware Workspace ONE service enables automatic device setup and extends the efficiencies of cloud management to configuration and deployment. The new SMB-focused PCaaS for Business expands the PC-as-a-Service offering introduced last year, which had more of an enterprise focus, with a target market of between 20 and 300 devices.

“Both of these are delivering on that promise to deliver on what our customers have asked us to deliver on – to be able to do workforce transformation,” Ricoy said. “The new provisioning capability delivers on the dream of zero touch provisioning, where you can have a PC sent directly from Dell to an end user where it will work from Day One. With the PCaaS, it’s the desire customers have to buy in the traditional fashion, but there’s a lot of interest in the predictable, monthly cost, and we have made some updates there.”

“We have expanded PcaaS with a new offering, and rebranding the old one that was introduced last year,” said Paul Squyres, PCaaS Global Product Manager at Dell. “The new PC-as-a-Service for Business is focused on SMBs, and on sales of between 20 and 300 units. The old offering has been rebranded PCaaS for Enterprise, with more than 300 units. This will let us address more customers than before.”

The details of the PCaaS offerings are basically the same as before. Customers can choose between Dell OptiPlex desktop, and Latitude, Precision and XPS notebooks, alone with lifecycle services, including provisioning, and Dell Financial Services financing. The new Dell Provisioning for VMware Workspace ONE service can be bundled into both offerings, if desired.

Squyres emphasized that although the messaging around all these announcements emphasized the direct efficiencies from zero-touch provisioning, both the SMB and enterprise PCaaS programs are fully open to partners.

“The channel is very important element for Dell, and the PCaaS offerings include a channel element,” he said. “Partners will be able to resell both of these. Nothing has changed in the channel strategy.”

The new Dell Provisioning for VMware Workspace ONE service utilizes preconfigured apps and settings to reduce time and resources associated with manual PC configuration and manual device imaging, to extend the efficiencies of cloud management to configuration and deployment.

“When an IT manager defines a standard desktop image, which is a necessary evil, it’s hard to update frequently,” said John New, Director of End User Computing Services at Dell. “So we have looked to VMware Workspace ONE over-the-air provisioning capability and combined that with the power and scale of our factory to come up with a ‘better together’ offer. We can ship that system directly to the end user, and instead of taking days to get a user up and productive, it is literally minutes.”

All the new offerings are available now.