In Brazil, 6.7% of new computers are rented, but worldwide leasing will grow 30% this year
06/20/2022
Hiring computers as a service, in a subscription model, instead of buying the machines, is no longer an emergency measure taken during the pandemic. The need to update computers in the resumption of face-to-face work and the complexity of managing machines distributed among remote employees have encouraged more companies to adopt the model of renting instead of buying.
Worldwide, the market for PC as a service — PCaaS — is expected to reach $2.6 billion this year, a 30% increase over the volume of 2021, and reach $3.2 billion in 2023, according to consultancy Gartner, but still representing a small slice, 5%, of the computers used by companies.
In Brazil, according to IDC (International Data Corporation), the volume of new equipment contracted as a service was 200,000, or 6.7% of the 3.3 million new computers sold to companies during the period.
The modest adoption rate of subscription machines still reflects a cultural resistance in Brazil. “For publicly traded companies, one thing is the depreciation of the asset that will be diluted and another is a fixed monthly expense that is not necessarily well regarded by the accounting department”, says Daniel Voltarelli, technology analyst of IDC Brazil.
In pandemic, however, the need to equip remote employees quickly brought a new look to the service model. In 2019, 11% of large and medium-sized companies in the country used the PCaaS model. The percentage rose to 20% in 2021, points out a survey carried out in January by consulting firm IT Data Market Intelligence with 1,500 medium-sized (100 to 500 employees) and large (over 500 employees) companies. Among large companies, 23% adopted the computer as a service last year.
“The preference for notebooks over desktops to give employees flexibility in the hybrid working model has made managing the machines a more complex task,” notes Ivair Rodrigues, founder of IT Data. “Many have adopted leasing.”
The food manufacturer M. Dias Branco opted for PC as a service even before the pandemic, in 2018, because it demanded fast support with national coverage.
The company, which today has 4,800 computers in use, in 19 industrial units and 42 distribution centers throughout the country, also chose the service model to accelerate the installation and support of the equipment. “What was important for us was the quality of service, which is fundamental prevent the employee from stopping because of an issue with the computer”, says Janilton Luz, M. Dias Branco’s information technology operations manager. “The computer represents a lot in our operation”.
Computer manufacturers, which depend on the sale of new machines, don’t want to be left out of the subscription model market either. Aware of the potential cost reduction with asset depreciation, remote machine management and employees for maintenance, companies such as Lenovo and Positivo Tecnologia also offer equipment packages as a service, including leasing, rental, support and machine management.
“As there is a generalized financial squeeze, many companies have decided to adopt the model,” says Rodrigo Guercio, vice president corporate sales at Positivo Tecnologia. Last year, the company had a turnover of R$62.5 million with the offer of hardware as a service — HaaS —, an increase of 105% in annual comparison.
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Giselle Santos — Foto: Carol Carquejeiro/Valor
For the travel agency Agaxtur, the adoption of the computer as a service helped prepare the company with new machines for the resumption of the tourism sector, after the peak of the pandemic. “We renewed our computers with laptops for all employees, who work remotely some days of the week,” says Giselle Santos, project manager and technology at Agaxtur.
Of the 110 machines used in the company, 70 are in the service model. “We have invested more in machines that use specific software to connect to the entire hotel, air and maritime network worldwide and that demand a lot of hardware performance,” says Ms. Santos. Still this year, Agaxtur intends to expand the hiring of the service to all the company’s computers and to 55 franchises in Brazil.
To help the financial departments of the companies quit the PC as an asset model, the equipment supplier Simpress created a return on investment calculator, which compares the value of the lease to the purchase of the machines. “It is important to calculate the indirect costs that are avoided by the service provision model, such as labor and even the reverse logistics of component disposal,” says Vittorio Danesi, CEO of Simpress.
Cristiano Herbert, president of OfficeTotal, an equipment and services outsourcing company, which started its operations with printers, foresees that the subscription computers — today in 20% of the companies — will increase similarly to that of printers in the next four to five years. “Today, 80% of corporate printers are rented, a curve that began to grow in the 1990s,” he recalls.
*By Daniela Braun — São Paulo
Source: Valor International