How Can I Tailor My PC Business Leasing Solution?

PC leasing solutions are an alternative to traditional supply chains, such as purchasing your devices.

PC business leasing is especially advantageous to companies since it spreads the cost of expensive equipment.

Computer hardware leasing is particularly attractive to businesses because they frequently must order a large number of devices at once. They also require superior models, and this can be a large financial hit.

Leasing the equipment enables a spreading of the expense into manageable payments, which frees up cash to put into other investments.

However, improved cashflow is not the only advantage of business device leasing. Another major factor in the growing popularity of leasing is the extensive tailoring of your solution, which is available with some providers.

Why Is A Tailored PC Business Leasing Solution Superior?

PC business leasing solutions come in many forms. It isn’t a one size fits all approach, unlike buying.

The problem with buying your devices, in addition to the considerable upfront cost, is that all the management, maintenance and operational burdens are placed on your company.

The result can be a lot of downtime for your staff, more work for your IT department, and management spending more time on upgrading equipment than driving the business to new profits.

With leasing solutions, far more support is available from your provider to alleviate these tasks and create less staff downtime.

While some computer equipment leasing suppliers will only offer very structured and simple packages, if you shop around for the right provider, you will be pleasantly surprised by the amount of choice available to you.

By choosing a lease provider that allows more tailoring and customisation of your lease terms, it will enable you to match the service to the needs of your staff and your business goals.

Why Is This A Better Option Than Buying Hardware?

Each industry and individual company have unique ways of operating, and how your hardware package is structured can affect this, ideally for the better.

Device leasing packages for companies are frequently delivered with added support, such as ongoing tech support, installation support, or management support. You would never get this level of assistance when buying the devices.

By tailoring these support elements, businesses can access a more comprehensive service for their devices, which removes time consuming hardware tasks from your IT department.

Of course, every business might require or desire a different level of support. For some, a very hands-on approach will help them to achieve their objectives. Others might benefit from a cheaper, less involved lease support package. This is where the ability to choose, tailor, tweak and customise your leasing package becomes so valuable.

How Can PC Business Leasing Be Customised?

This is all down to your provider. Hardsoft provides some of the most flexible leasing solutions on the market. There are a plethora of choices in the type of lease, but also you can customise your lease on a granular level to receive a service totally tailored to serve your business.

Let’s explore some of the ways a PC business lease agreement can be customised.

1.Device number. This is an obvious one that you’ll find with most hardware lease providers. Naturally, the number of devices you require will depend on your business size. However, if you choose the right supplier, you can also gain the ability to customise and change the size of your lease and how many devices it covers during the lease. This is very useful for rapidly growing businesses, companies that must swiftly downsize a department, or when individual staff leave or are hired. Having customisation and flexibility around the number of devices in your lease is incredibly useful. Hardsoft has some highly flexible leasing packages that allow the number of devices to scale with your company. We won’t penalise you for returning hardware that you no longer need. In fact, we can help ensure you never have superfluous equipment standing idle.

2. Device type. When you choose PC business leasing as your supply chain, there is an extensive choice of suppliers on the market. More and more providers are popping up as this method of acquiring hardware becomes more popular. Many of the leading manufacturers have created their own lease-style solutions, often in the form of a DaaS package. However, if you go straight to a manufacturer, you can only lease one type of device, e.g., HP is only going to give you HP machines. When you select an experienced lease provider, who works with all the top manufacturers, you have access to all the best hardware from Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, HP, Dell, and more. Not only that but with their vast experience of all the brands and models, your supplier can advise which devices will be most suited to each of your staff’s functions.

3. Mix and match. Another, more unusual way, that you can tailor your lease is by mixing and matching devices. Many providers won’t enable this, particularly with Apple and PC equipment. Luckily, Hardsoft works closely with Apple and all the leading PC manufacturing firms, so we can supply a mixed device office.

4. Device management. Some businesses simply want their new hardware, but others might need assistance with managing how their company devices are used by employees. This is especially true if they have staff working from home and/or using a mixture of company leased devices and BYOD (bring your own devices). Your PC business leasing provider can help with services such as setting up an MDM (mobile device management software). We can then show you how to manage devices, which can allow you to do anything from restricting certain files within particular work apps or servers, to wiping a device if it’s lost or stolen. The level of assistance with MDMs can be tailored to your requirements. 

5. Configuring and Boomerang. Another way you can tailor your hardware lease is to request assistance with configuration. This is sometimes available on DaaS packages, and Hardsoft pride ourselves on offering this service. This is one of the most useful features if businesses want to cut downtime when receiving new hardware and get the most from their new equipment. Configuration allows devices to arrive at your offices or staff’s homes completely out-of-the-box and ready-to-go. This means no initial setup, and no messing about installing all the company apps and software. No tedious inputting all your accounts. Each device can arrive configured to the profile of each individual employee. This is a massive time saver for your workers. Not only that, but with Hardsoft, we have Boomerang. If an employee leaves and you wish to transfer hardware to another staff member, Hardsoft can wipe and reconfigure the device to the new staff member’s accounts, apps and needs, even if they are from a completely different department with a different setup. This ensures you get the most from each device.

6. Tech Support. Of course, tech support is one of the most well known and popular aspects of business device leasing. With buying you have to rely on your own IT department. Many smaller and medium-sized companies do not even have their own IT department these days. That’s cost effective but often troublesome when you encounter issues with tech. Most leases will come with some tech support. However, with providers like Hardsoft, there are numerous ways that you can tailor your support plan. All our different lease types come with 360-degree support wrappers. Within our DaaS solutions like Devices For Teams, our clients get a choice between a cheaper Gold support package or a Platinum support package. Gold comes with detailed support including:

• 3 years hardware warranty
• Loan device
• Ticket-based Helpdesk with Unlimited UK Remote Tech Support
• Access to Online Support Portal
• Support Incident Response SLA – 1 hour
• Apple Business Manager
• MDM Device Management Setup
• Access To Solutions Mentors
• Annual Onsite Visit
• Pre-Configured Devices
• Available on Existing Devices

Platinum comes with all of the above but additionally:

• Boomerang (Lifecycle Management)
• Quarterly Strategic Security Review
• User Cloud Backup Solution
• Quarterly Activity Reporting
If that wasn’t enough, and your business requires even more tailored support, then there are optional add-ons for increased consultancy and cyber security.

7. Strategic support and troubleshooting. The vast majority of computer equipment suppliers will offer tech support with their leases. These will have various degrees of customisation ability and robustness. However, this tends to only cover tech support. Few providers offer the level of strategic support that is available from Hardsoft. Our expert team can do the support basics for companies looking to lease while saving money. Yet we also have highly affordable scaling plans that can include strategic support. Larger companies, rapidly scaling companies and particular industries will benefit from a clear device strategy. Having a hardware strategy can save money, drive profits, and ensure staff can do their best work. This starts from evaluations to help choose the best equipment and goes all the way to troubleshooting specialist solutions for niche industries. Our PC experts enable us to offer some of the most customised strategic device solutions and troubleshooting for businesses.

8. Cyber security. Security for your business data, client information, and financial details is more important than ever. Your data has never been more at risk as cyber attacks on businesses surge. Data breaches exposed 36 billion records in the first half of 2020. 86% of breaches were financially motivated and 10% were motivated by espionage. Some industries, such as finance companies, and especially FinTech firms will require more robust cyber security due to the nature of the technology that they are utilising and the sensitive data they carry. Hardsoft has multiple levels of cybersecurity defence and software they can implement for at risk industries. The level of protection can be completely tailored to your business’s specific needs.

9. Green IT practices support. The UK government has set the target of 2050 for net zero. Many businesses are already being fined for non-compliance with instigating environmental policies. There has, therefore, been a rapid increase in demand for greener computing tactics, greener devices, and more sustainable computing. Hardsoft is at the forefront of sustainable computing and can provide guidance and techniques that measurably work to reduce your company emissions and e waste in terms of your device strategy. With Devices For Greener Teams, we can craft a green computing solution as part of your lease.  

10. Type of lease. While some PC business leasing packages are very prescriptive or similar, a great provider will have various different types of leases to suit different businesses. This is another significant way in which leasing is so different to buying your hardware. At Hardsoft we have three main types of lease:

a. DaaS – Our Device as a Service solution is Devices For Teams. All DaaS leases are known for their focus on service. Of course, Devices For Teams takes this much further with far more customisation and support options than our competitors. There are two levels of DaaS at Hardsoft to help match the service to business size and different clients’ budgets. There is the essentials package and the premium package. The premium option is easily one of the most flexible, tailored, and customisable business computer leasing options on the market. It can also be paired with either the Gold or Platinum support packages + any optional add-on support features. On top of all this, there is the Devices For Greener Teams version with a massive focus on helping businesses achieve net zero. In a DaaS lease, you can work towards ownership of the hardware, but you are entitled to regular upgrades to the latest technology throughout your lease.

b. Flexi-Lease. Flexibility isn’t limited to DaaS though. One of our most flexible options is Flexi-Lease. It has a standard lease format where you work towards ownership over three years, except you can CHANGE, CONTINUE, or CANCEL part way through your lease without penalty. In such a changeable economy this flexibility is invaluable to businesses. It also comes with a thorough support package.

c. Pure Rental. For smaller businesses, there is the highly affordable option of renting business computer hardware. On Pure Rental, you do not work towards ownership, and simply return the devices at the end of the lease. It’s simple, efficient, cost-effective and still comes with fantastic support.
This range of lease styles makes it easy to find a great structure for any business and then tailor and refine it to an individual company’s requirements.

11) Industry-specific service. One of the most valuable ways in which you can tailor your lease is to have it structured to meet the needs of your specific industry. It is clear to many that the hardware and software service requirements of a scientific research lab, a Fintech scale up, a school, an architecture firm, a logistics company, and a retail change are all going to be very different. The technology they require will be different and the way they manage their staff on devices will be different. The best way to ensure that a PC business lease is tailored to your industry is to find a provider who has worked alongside a wide spectrum of sectors. If they have a hands-on approach and know-how to tweak their leasing solutions to your industry then they can offer the best advice, strategy, and day-to-day services.

12) Individual tailoring. What is it that enables some leasing firms to be so flexible? While others only provide static, one size fits all packages? It is partly inspiration, partly experience, but another key factor in how independent they can be in their decision making. Hardsoft business computer leasing does not involve any third-party finance firm. We are our own finance company, yet far different from your standard old-fashioned bank. We can choose who we lease to and have complete autonomy over these decisions. This grants us a level of efficiency and flexibility that other leasing firms who use third-party finance forms simply don’t possess. With this freedom, we have much more scope to tailor each leasing contract to the individual.

As you can see, there are many reasons why having a more tailored and personal computer lease contract can benefit your business and make your operations easier.