Ask a mid-sized organisation what its laptops cost and you'll usually get a number from the last purchase order. Ask what they cost to run, and the room goes quiet.
That gap is the reason Device as a Service (DaaS) has moved from a niche finance product to a mainstream way of running end-user technology. For a 30-person business, buying a handful of laptops on a credit card is often fine. For an organisation with 150, 800 or 3,000 people, devices are a fleet: they have to be bought, configured, secured, supported, refreshed and retired, on a schedule, across offices and home workers, without the business noticing.
The purchase price of a laptop is the smallest decision you'll make about it. The real cost is everything that happens in the three years after it arrives.
The hidden cost of owning a fleet
When devices are bought outright, the costs that follow are scattered across budgets and people. IT staff image and ship machines. Finance tracks depreciation on assets that lose most of their value in three years. Someone chases warranty claims. Old laptops sit in a cupboard because no one is sure the data has been wiped. And every few years, a large refresh lands as an unplanned capital request.
None of these costs appear on the original invoice, and that's exactly why they're so easy to underestimate. For mid-sized organisations they also land on small IT teams who would rather be working on projects that move the business forward.
What DaaS actually is
Device as a Service bundles the device, the services around it and the finance into one predictable monthly payment per person, over a fixed term. At the end of the term, devices are refreshed and the old ones are retired securely.
The device lifecycle, as one service
- Step 1
Plan
Right device for each role, standard builds, refresh dates agreed up front.
- Step 2
Procure & configure
Sourced from four distributors at the best price; enrolled in Autopilot and Intune before it ships.
- Step 3
Deploy
Delivered ready to use: staff sign in with their Microsoft 365 account and work.
- Step 4
Manage & support
Patching, security, warranty claims and support tickets linked to the exact device.
- Step 5
Refresh
New devices at 36 months, before performance and warranty fall away.
- Step 6
Retire securely
Certified data wiping, reuse or recycling, with a record for your auditors.
- Then it starts again: continuous, not a one-off project
The model matters less than the outcome it creates: every device in the business has an owner, a configuration, a support path, a warranty date and a planned end of life. Nothing is left to chance.
Five reasons it matters more for mid-sized and large organisations
1. Predictable spend instead of capital spikes
Refreshing 150 laptops at once is a six-figure capital decision that competes with every other investment the business wants to make. DaaS turns it into a flat monthly operating cost that scales with headcount, so a hiring plan becomes a device plan automatically.
Cash out over three years, 150 staff
End of year 1
End of year 2
End of year 3
$300,000
leaves the business on day one when buying outright
$9,401
a month with DaaS, the same every month for 36 months
To be clear about the trade-off: spreading payments over 36 months includes a finance cost, so DaaS is not the cheapest way to buy a laptop. It's the most predictable way to run one, and it keeps capital free for the parts of the business that earn a return.
2. A consistent, secure baseline
Every device arrives enrolled in Windows Autopilot and Microsoft Intune with the same security baseline, the same applications and the same policies. That consistency is what makes security achievable at scale: you can't protect what you don't know about, and you can't patch what you can't reach.
3. Refresh happens before it hurts
Devices are replaced at the end of the term, not when they fail. That keeps staff on hardware that is in warranty, fast enough for modern applications and supported by the operating system. When Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on 14 October 2025, organisations on a managed refresh cycle had already moved; many that owned ageing fleets faced a rushed, expensive project.
4. Your IT team gets its time back
Imaging, shipping, warranty claims and returns are handled for you. Internal IT stops being a logistics function and starts working on the projects only they can do.
5. Secure, responsible end of life
Every device is retired with certified data wiping and a record of what happened to it. For regulated organisations, that audit trail is not a nice to have; it's the difference between a clean audit and an awkward conversation.
$0
upfront: devices, set-up and services in one monthly payment per person
Source: The Next Device
36 months
refresh cycle, so staff are never on out-of-warranty hardware
Source: The Next Device
1 portal
for every device, warranty, support ticket and invoice
Source: The Next Device
Visibility is the part most providers forget
A monthly payment is easy to offer. What makes DaaS work for a growing organisation is knowing exactly what you have.
Every device we supply is registered against your organisation in our customer portal, with its serial number, specification, who has it and where, its warranty end date and its support history. Your IT lead can see which warranties expire in the next 90 days. Your finance team can see what's on which plan, and download every invoice. When someone raises a support ticket, it's linked to the exact device, so nobody wastes a call asking for a serial number.
Your fleet, in one place
248
devices under management
12
warranties ending in 90 days
3
open support tickets
36 mo
refresh cycle on DaaS
| HP EliteBook 8 G1i | Finance · Level 3 | Warranty to Oct 2028 | Active |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T14s | Sales · Melbourne | Warranty ends in 60 days | Renew |
| HP ProBook 4 G1i | Reception | Ticket SR-1042 open | In repair |
What it looks like in practice
A 40-person accounting practice standardises before tax season
Instead of replacing laptops one at a time as they fail, the practice moves everyone onto the same model on one plan. New starters are productive on day one, and the partners stop approving ad-hoc purchases.
A 250-person services firm opens two new offices in a year
Devices for each new site arrive configured and ready to sign in, on the same monthly rate. Growth is a line in the hiring plan, not a capital request, and every device is visible in one register.
A 2,000-seat organisation brings order to a mixed fleet
Several generations of devices from different buying rounds are consolidated onto a managed refresh cycle by department. Security has a single baseline to enforce, and finance has one predictable line instead of competing refresh projects.
When DaaS isn't the right answer
DaaS is not always the best fit. If you replace devices only every five or six years, have very few staff, or have specialised equipment with unusual life cycles, buying outright can make more sense. A good provider will tell you that, and should offer both options side by side so you can compare. We do: every device on our site is priced to buy upfront or on 12- and 36-month DaaS.
What to look for in a provider
- Choice of hardware: pricing drawn from several distributors, not one brand's catalogue.
- Services included, not bolted on: set-up, support, warranty handling and secure retirement in the same agreement.
- Visibility: a real-time view of your fleet, not a spreadsheet emailed once a quarter.
- Flexibility: the ability to add people mid-term on the same rate, and a clear plan for the end of the term.
- Local support: people you can call who know your environment.
The bottom line
For mid-sized and large organisations, the question is no longer whether you can afford to buy laptops. It's whether you can afford to keep managing them yourself. DaaS turns a scattered, unpredictable set of costs into one service with a clear owner, and gives your people better technology while it does.
Sources
- Windows 10 support has ended (Microsoft)
- Cash-flow illustration: The Next Device's published DaaS pricing over 36 months; your figures depend on the devices and services chosen.
