Device as a Service Solutions: How to Manage Parts Price Fluctuations with Device as a Service

Jay: What is going on? This is Jay and Michael here on the IT Directors podcast, and we have an awesome guest today. Our owner and our founder of our company, Stan Sargent, with Clear Winds. Stan, how are you doing today? 

Stan: Doing good. Appreciate y’all having me on. 

Jay: Look, we are so glad to have Stan in the studio today because we’re going to talk about a super hot topic: Device as a Service. 

Michael: No, it is right now. The landscape is especially crazy. Pricing is fluid. Trying to find components for devices of different types of things has really shifted the market right now. 

Stan: It definitely has.

Jay: So Stan, a lot of our listeners and viewers, they might not know a ton about you and your role. You’re the founder and CEO of our company. Give us a little bit of backstory about how you got into this role. 

Stan: Appreciate that. Yeah, so I’m Stan Sargent, founder and CEO of Clear Winds, and I got involved with this type of business through another company that was doing IT consulting.

I found IT very interesting, and I was fortunate enough to have found this company and kind of got into it slowly. It was a two-man company. Very interesting times, but it has continued to grow over time and gotten to what it is today. We’ve got people in six different states doing a lot of work in all verticals. 

Jay: That is so awesome. 

We’re just going to hop right in, Michael, talking about Device as a Service. Stan, what’s one key insight you’ve learned about managing devices across different types of organizations—whether K‑12, healthcare, or the private sector—especially when it comes to maintaining those devices and extending their lifespan?

Stan: When it comes to client devices—desktops, laptops, Chromebooks, and tablets—they all have kind of different life cycles. One thing with desktops is they sit on the desk and don’t get moved.

Laptops and Chromebooks are getting moved around a lot, so you get a lot of potential breakage. People are going to drop them; things are going to happen. Just the movement of putting it in your bag every day could cause some of those things to disconnect inside. So it just may have some issues that come up.

And it is a small form factor, so they’re trying to make things a little smaller and kind of cram them into a smaller area, which could cause some issues there too. So you’ve got all that. But there’s a lot that goes into managing these devices.

Your IT department out there has got to get that device, build it directly for a user, and hand it to that user, and then they’re going to need the information to come. But the thing is, there’s security around that. You’ve gotta continue to upgrade the apps. You have to upgrade the operating system. And if it does break, warranty issues come up. You’ve got those kinds of things you have to look at. So, a lot goes into that from a lifecycle standpoint.

Michael: So talking about the lifecycle, the environment that we’re in right now, how is that impacting this idea of Device as a Service, and even from your perspective, what is the landscape? What is the environment right now? What’s happened? 

Stan: There’s a lot going on right now. Everybody’s heard about the tariffs. The tariffs have always been there, and with these trade wars going on right now, there’s a lot going on.

The Trump administration put out additional tariffs. Some of them got knocked down, but just because the Supreme Court said, “Hey, those particular tariffs are not legal in the way that [you’re] doing.” It didn’t mean that there weren’t two or three other tariffs already on there that got put on there legally. Those are still in place, and that has caused the prices to go up. So there are those which are always changing. The second thing is shortages of different types of parts that go into laptops and Chromebooks and those kinds of things.

One is SSD drives. So SSD drives, especially in Chromebooks, are usually 4 gig/8 gig. You might have some with 16 gigs. But it happens to be that those are the drives that are going into your iPhones and your Samsungs—those kinds of things. Well, guess what?

Because of the 17 getting released, that has caused the shortages of those particular SSD drives, and it’s making the Chromebook pricing go up. Another thing that’s making those prices go up is that they use an N100-series chip. Intel makes that chip. Well, Intel has increased that price twice in the last six months significantly, which is going to drive up those costs. So that’s another reason for Chromebook price increases. 

The third thing is the memory. So memory has really skyrocketed. I think that’s probably what’s gotten the most press: things going up because of AI. Mm-hmm. There are so many servers that are getting put out by Google, Microsoft, and Tesla—the magnificent seven out there.

They’re spending trillions of dollars on devices and putting up data centers. All those take memory, and companies like Micron that make this memory are like, “Hey, the margin is really good on that.” Well, guess what? The margin’s so good that they’re like, “Do I even want to deal with the low-end stuff?”

When I say “low end,” I’m talking about the stuff that goes into your laptops, desktops, and those kinds of things. Their margin isn’t as great. Mm-hmm. So, they’re kinda like, “Hey, I think we’re gonna get out of that business.” That causes a big shortage and causes those numbers to spike too.

Michael: That’s very interesting. Are you finding that there are certain industries that are impacted more than others? 

Stan: Industries, as in the verticals? I think they all can be impacted. They can be impacted differently but kind of the same because nobody’s immune to the price.

We do see a lot of that in the K12 systems. They are buying big bulk buys because they’ve got these one-to-one initiatives. That is when they have to go out, and if they have 20,000 students in their system, they’re buying 5-10,000 at a time. And for the manufacturers, it is hard to pin them down to a price because they know the price can fluctuate every day. So it makes it very hard for them. So in that arena, I can see them having trouble because they have very fixed budgets.

Michael: Even on the sales side, I’m having these conversations daily where we’ve got these schools that we work with, and they have a set budget. They’re not getting their funding till six months from now—it is a way out.

But they have a budget, and they’re trying to understand how to make this happen? How do I get this price because this is the quantity of devices I need? I can only be in this price range, but it’s fluid. And on the partner side, it has been a scramble for a lot of people to find a solution to make this work. 

Stan: So it does make it difficult because, as a reseller, we certainly don’t know what the price is going to be because the manufacturer can barely tell us what it is. And I get that these organizations want to lock in on a price, but it’s very hard.

Unless you’re going to tell me, “Hey, I’m going to put in a purchase today,” then we can’t really guarantee you any price, right? So it makes it very tough. That’s why a device as a service could be a good option. The good thing about client devices is that, unlike major CapEx investments like data center equipment or buildings, we can actually shift them into an OpEx model. Since client devices are often your biggest IT expense, we can turn that into a predictable, fixed yearly operational cost instead of a large upfront purchase. What’s great about Devices as a Service is that you can take all your devices and say, “I want to do Devices as a Service,” and companies like Clear Winds can take the devices. They can get it for you; they can package it with white gloves to make it ready to hand to a user. And then we can include accidental damage protection so if it does break, we can fix it. There’s no additional cost on that. We can bundle managed services to help support you. If you don’t have the staff to do that, we can do that. We can put a case around it to help protect it, and we can even add security and those kinds of things. So there’s a lot that we can bundle, and then it’s just one fixed price.

Jay: Stan, you said something that’s really interesting when talking about all the services we can wrap around as Clear Winds or any organization that does that. I think the end users and the companies that we serve highly underestimate the cost to fix a broken device. I’ve been there. And you start to add up the ROI, the man-hours, the soft hours, and all these things around just one broken device. That’s why Device as a Service is so great. So where do clients and customers underestimate how much it actually costs to repair and service the broken devices? Not just from physical, but also from software and everything. What do you think about that? 

Stan: When you’re thinking about capital expenditures, a lot of people have operated on that client device side. So it’s, “Hey, I’m going to go buy the device.” And if you want to maintain your own devices, well, now you have to go find parts for them. That takes time.

If you’re fixing a lot of them, you’ll probably want to get some bids. So you have to put out the bid process, and then you’re involving your financial system to help you make those judgment calls. Then you have to evaluate and write up something for your RFP. So all those things are things that people don’t really think about. And now that you got all the parts, well, now you have to fix it. That’s pulling IT people that have to do that. It’s pulling them out of their normal job. They’ve got to be out there helping users or maybe helping the students figure out their education. So, those kinds of things are the real key. 

Even just managing the devices, you’re doing software updates and operation updates and watching the security and monitoring. That takes staff to do that. Companies like us have experts in the field that know that and are watching that every day.

So that makes it really nice to know that you’ve got experts in every area. Whether that’s security or client stuff or even the connections to the networks. We’ve got network engineers. You might think it’s a client issue, but it turns out to be a network issue. We can kind of help you out with that, managing the devices. 

Jay: Let’s segue right into that because I think that’s such a key point of the Device as Service, Michael: managing the devices. So I know we talked about the lifecycle to break-fix and then managing that as a whole. Because the device is not just a device, it’s a backbone for the organization. People run payroll on their devices, fill inventory, and do all these things. So it becomes a backbone, the equipment that our end-users use. When you don’t have the resources, that’s where the device as a service is so key. I think that’s where it’s so beneficial for our end-users. 

Stan: That’s kind of one thing, from our managed service area, that we always say. A user at any company, all they care about is getting the data that they need on their screen at the time they want it. That’s all they care about. I always use the example of when you go to turn on the light switch on the wall. All you care about is that the light comes on. You’re not thinking, “Okay, now that went down the power plant; they turned on the generator that sent that down the power transmission line, and it took a step down to the transformer.” Nobody’s thinking that. Well, it’s the same thing with your computer.

You want to turn it on. You want to get the piece of information that you want at that time. That’s where companies like us can come into play. That’s our whole focus. To make sure that happens. 

Michael: I know, even being at Clear Winds for a little while myself, one of our big things is that we want people to do what they do best. You focus on what you’re doing as an organization, not worrying about the IT side of things. We want to empower you to chase your own mission and vision and be empowered to do that.

Jay: What about e-waste? This is something that a lot of people don’t talk about. If you don’t have an organization like us doing Device as a Service helping you manage your devices, you have no idea how much waste you’re creating and how to manage it. 

Michael: We go to so many people’s places, and everybody’s got a closet with a pile of stuff that there’s no telling how old it is, and the only thing you can do with it at this point is make a fort out of it. A little fort serving no purpose. 

Stan: The kids love it.

Jay: We picked up some client devices this week, and I remember thinking like, man, we create so much e-waste around just end-user devices. I think that’s where a device as a service could help mitigate some of that issue for your organization.

Stan: No doubt; that’s exactly right. I’ve been in many organizations—commercial, school districts, and city governments—and I’ve seen rooms with piles of old stuff that they don’t know what to do with. You can’t just dispose of it by throwing it in the dumpster. There are batteries in there, there’s plastic, there are all kinds of things in the chips, and everything that you need to take care of.

So, that’s one good thing about a device as a service. You’re not responsible for getting rid of those devices. That would fall on your provider. If we’re providing a device as a service for you, once the useful life of that device comes about, then we take care of it, and we’ll get rid of those things for you in a proper manner. 

Jay: Well, that goes to security. If you have Clear Winds doing your device as a service, you don’t have to worry about wiping the hard drives or stripping the data off your storage. Most users just don’t think about it. They think, “Hey, this is an old Chromebook. I’m throwing that thing away.” It’s an old laptop, but it might have social security numbers on there or payroll information. You never know. I think that with Device as a Service, that really ties in hand in hand. 

Michael: From a strategic standpoint, are you seeing people exploring this right now? What are the trends that you’re seeing?

Stan: Yeah, you haven’t seen a lot of it. I’ve seen more in commercial fields than I have in school districts or even city governments, those kinds of things, you know? But I think with the landscape of what’s happening and the cost really going up, it makes a lot of sense for any organization to look at Device as a Service because it checks a lot of boxes. And it can give you a fixed monthly or fixed yearly price depending on how you want to pay for it. It makes it more of an operational cost where you can predict it. We were talking about schools, and those budgets are hard because all of a sudden the schools had ESSER funds and things like that coming in from the federal government because of COVID and everything. A lot of units were bought with that, which is great. The problem is, those funds are gone. Now it’s been five years since, and you got an aging fleet of devices. So again, e-waste. What do you do with them, and how do I keep this one-to-one? How do I keep that going? 

Jay: I was in that role in my previous job. We had all this money. Millions of dollars from Esser funding, and we’re buying everything in the world. This is great, man. We got devices. You want iPads, you want Chromebooks, you want laptops? But then you’re thinking, how do I sustain that five years from now? Then, 10 years from now? And when that funding ends? I think that’s so amazing that we’re on the cutting edge of the device as a service initiative. There are so many people that are in that boat right now, and I think offering that to all of our listeners and viewers is such a viable option because organizations don’t have the budget to do that long-term. 

Stan: Right. And I tell you what, from a CFO standpoint, it makes it so much easier. If you know you’ve got a fixed price for something every month and it doesn’t fluctuate, it goes a long way. It really does. I always think about that even from our managed service standpoint. We’ll do all your support for one fixed monthly price. You can call us one time or a thousand times. It doesn’t matter. It’s one fixed price. 

Jay: That goes a long way. 

Stan: One thing that we hadn’t really talked about in this was just managing the asset. Asset management is very key. So that’s one thing that we include with our device as a service.

Something that I think all your listeners should consider is do they include asset management? We do, and you may already have one, which is great, but we do offer one, and it just comes with it because we want you to be able to manage those assets. We don’t even mind if you put all your other assets into it. Switching gears or servers or whatever. You can load everything into the system, and you’ll always know exactly where each asset is. You can track its status, see when it’s sent in for repair, and follow it through our repair facility. We’ll even help you get everything set up so the process runs seamlessly. I mean, we’re there to try to make it as easy as possible. If you bought Devices as a Service, don’t worry about trying to figure out how to get them in there. We’ll put all that in there for you. If you’ve got a spreadsheet with your other assets, we’ll put those in there for you too.

Jay: I was just about to bring that up, Michael. We’ve talked about devices as a service. We’ve talked about e-waste. We talked about the total cost of repairing, fixing, and managing the physical assets. We just met with a district yesterday. They had no idea where a lot of their assets were. With our product, we’re going to manage your device, but also we’re going to help you track and manage your assets. Knowing where your devices are, their lifecycle stage, any warranty issues, and when they’re approaching end‑of‑life—whether laptops or Chromebooks—is essential. Without that visibility, you simply can’t manage them effectively. I think that’s what sets our solution apart, Michael, is how we offer that as a part of our device as a service. We’re going to refresh your laptops and desktops every two years and all these things for you, but now we’re going to manage them physically for you and show you where they are and show you some great data around that. 

Michael: It is thinking about it differently because I think as organizations grow and adapt, you add some things here and you add some things there. The more different things you start to add, the more you might just accept the frustration. You might accept some of the challenges, or you might have to manage all these aspects. But now you find yourself; you’ve accepted some pain points for a while. You kind of wake up a little bit, and it’s like, “Hey, there has to be a better way to do this.” This is a better way.

Jay: To Stan’s point, Michael, the memory issue—they’re building global tier-three data centers that are purely designed for AI. They’re all memory intensive. That is not going backwards. We’re only going more into that direction. So I think of it as a device as a service because devices are going to be harder and harder to procure, and companies are going to see, “Hey, I’m Intel; I can make a lot more money making this RAM for that, and I can put it in a little XYZ laptop.” And so I think procuring the devices is even more difficult for companies and organizations.

That’s only gonna grow. So we have to shift how we are as an industry and how we procure those devices. 

Michael: I think it’s the idea of five years from now—what do you think is going to separate people? What’s an innovation that, five years from now, can separate you and position you for success in a better way? 

Jay: That’s what’s so awesome about having you on today, Stan, is to talk about this because I think we’re ahead of the curve. And I think once you people start really looking at it holistically, they’ll realize that this is a great opportunity. Like Michael just mentioned, five years down the line, we’re probably going to have 20 or 30% more people that are doing Device as a Service. 

Stan: Yeah, I think so. As your listeners are considering this, look for a company that has put a lot of thought into the Devices as a Service because it can be as simple as “I got a device, and it’s not set up or anything, and I’m still supporting it, and then in four years I’m going to get another one.” Well, that’s one thing, but there’s a lot that can be added to make life a lot more simple for you. 

Jay: Oh, a hundred percent. I’m telling you, for our listeners and viewers, I think this is going to be a fantastic episode because I think a lot of people are in that six-month time window where they’re having to decide: do I go to the CFO and try to get two more million dollars, or where do I go? How do I budget this? Because they can’t sustain what they’ve been doing.

And that’s across the board in all verticals, not just K12 or healthcare. 

Michael: Oh yeah. This week alone I have had conversations for the transportation industry, education, manufacturing, and healthcare. All those industries. We’ve had this type of conversation already this week. 

Jay: Oh, a hundred percent. 

Stan: One thing I was going to say is what is your benefit? When you consider doing this, what’s your benefit for continuing to buy your units as you always have?

As you move into devices as a service, the great thing is the fixed cost. You know what your cost is. You don’t have to worry about the fluctuating prices, and you can kind of treat it more as an operational cost.

Jay: Total fixed cost too, right?

Stan: That’s right. I think that’s a real benefit there, and then depending on how you’re using your IT staff, this can be very beneficial to you. At Clear Winds, and I’m sure there are other people like us, they’re going to have experts in different areas.

We’ve got our client device guys; they’re experts of that. Especially if you’re using Microsoft 365 products. If you’re into Azure, we’ve got experts on that networking database. All these things, we know really well.

So, if there are issues, then we will be able to help you out. And then we make sure that these things are updated, right? That’s very key. The thing about a unit is you have to update it, right?

I was talking to one of our guys this morning, and he was on the phone with a customer. The vendor was getting a little offensive. He was like, “Hey, why are you in our unit?”

Well, you have some problems with it. He is like, “Oh yeah, the database was scrubbed. I think we got hacked. That’s weird. We never get hacked. It’s always everybody else.” This time it might be you. 

Jay: You said something really interesting about the fixed cost, and I didn’t think about it till you said it. There’s no way for CFOs to gauge that in the next two years, but if you do device as a service, you can gauge it.

Stan: Usually people set their budgets six months to a year in advance. So if you say, “Hey, these devices are $500 each.” Well, guess what? In six months, in this environment, those devices could cost $900. 

Michael: We’re seeing that within weeks. Closing out, what would be the highlight points you could say are the top reasons why I would consider this as you look at upgrading your systems over the next year or so?

Stan: I think the fixed cost is going to be the biggest. That’s why I think a lot of people need to be looking at it because of the shortages in memory and SSD chips. And then the fluctuating prices on the chip and on the CPUs. I think that is going to be number one. Cost is always number one, right? But as the complexities of applications come around and people are on their laptops and their desktops more and more—that’s where you get your data. So I think it’s very key to having working devices and keeping your uptime as much as possible. You want to flip the switch and the lights come on. That’s exactly what you want from your laptop. You open it up and then you get the data that you want at that time. That’s very key, and to have a team, like Clear Winds, that you can call and say, “Hey, I’m having an issue.” They’re going to help you out immediately. And having a team watching the security and making sure they’re getting the updates done and those kinds of things. Those are some of the big things that you get from a device as a service. 

Jay: Oh, absolutely. I don’t know about you, Michael, but I loved this episode. I’ve learned a lot. Thank you, Stan, for coming on. 

Stan: Thank you. 

Jay: This has been fantastic. Reach out to us on all the social media platforms. Go follow us on The IT Directors Podcast. We’re on every platform. We’ll have a lot of notes in the show notes, and if you want to learn more about Device as a Service, give us a call or go to our website, clearwinds.net, and we would love to talk with you.

And so, this is Jay and Michael, and we are out.