Renting tablets – when does it make sense?

If you want to equip your team with modern tablets via a B2B rental model, there’s a pretty smart and flexible solution: Device-as-a-Service (DaaS).

What that means and why it’s the most convenient way to provide employees with tablets is explained below. Or you can simply click the link that follows and we’ll walk you through it in a personal conversation.

What does it mean to rent company tablets?

Let’s start at the beginning. Renting tablets means exactly that: you bring the devices into your company for a defined period without buying them. Essentially, you’re borrowing the tablets. They remain the property of the rental provider, who makes sure they are fully functional and ready to use.

Device-as-a-Service is the best possible solution here – basically the VIP option among rental models. You don’t just get the hardware, but a true all-round carefree package.

Everphone’s tablet rental service includes:

• procurement of rental tablets (Apple, Samsung, …)
• integration into your mobile device management,
• direct shipping to users,
• access to our user portal for admins and users,
• replacement of defective devices, and
• return and refurbishment at the end of the rental term for reuse of the device.

We call this holistic approach – which covers almost all tasks related to rental tablets from ordering to return – device lifecycle management.

Renting B2B tablets: why is it so practical?

Buying sounds easier at first: you buy it, and then you own the tablet.

Leasing is also considered by many companies.

So what makes tablet rental special? Here’s why it makes sense.

With rental, you always have up-to-date tablets

Technology evolves at a rapid pace. If you choose DaaS, you regularly get the latest tablets without having to worry about the resale value of outdated devices. Simply swap them out and always stay up to date.

Tablet rental helps you reduce costs

Budget planning can be tricky, but with DaaS you have fixed monthly costs – operating expenses. From a tax perspective, that’s very different from capital expenditures when purchasing devices. You can read more about this in our Opex strategy page.

No nasty surprises, no unexpected repair costs – you only pay for what you actually use. That leaves more room in the budget for other good ideas. And once you factor in internal costs for IT, procurement, HR, and everyone else involved in sourcing and managing company tablets, tablet rental becomes an absolute no-brainer.

Capex to Opex: Rent company phones with “buy and rent back”

Tablet rental is pure flexibility

Your team is growing?

Congratulations – you can rent additional tablets at any time, so new colleagues receive a ready-to-use device during onboarding. That boosts productivity and makes you shine as an employer.

And if things slow down?

If you need to scale back, you can reduce the number of devices again. When someone leaves the company, the tablet rental can end on request. This flexibility is hard to beat, especially in dynamic industries.

Less effort for IT with rented DaaS tablets

With Everphone, DaaS also includes support for configuration and administration of tablets. If you use an ITMS (IT management system) such as Datanet or ServiceNow, we can connect via API.

IT tickets related to tablet procurement, tablet management, or tablet rental are then automatically routed to us – and we take care of everything. Your IT team just keeps an eye on things.

In general, users can handle standard support cases directly via our portal. The portal is available to all organizations. If you prefer to keep using your existing ITSM system for Device-as-a-Service, our REST API supports that as well.

Cracked screen on a rental tablet?

Yes, annoying – but:

Your users simply log in, order a replacement device, and send the old one back immediately. No postage, no stress, no bureaucracy, no additional costs. Users love it – it’s fast and straightforward.

And your IT team will thank you too, because there’s less stress around business tablets and more time for important tasks.

Renting tablets is more sustainable

Last but not least: returned devices are taken back by us, data is securely and certifiedly erased, the devices are refurbished, and then reused. This is called the circular economy – and it’s by far the most sustainable way to handle company smartphones and tablets.

For you, this also means no iPads or Android tablets lying around unused. That would simply be a waste.

A tablet can be a great employee benefit

Of course, it needs to be configured properly for private use – keywords here are data protection and data security. In principle, this is not a problem. With the right combination of software and security architecture, it works smoothly on both iPadOS and Android.

Once set up, users can install apps freely for private use. Company data, however, is isolated in a so-called workspace and can be remotely locked or even wiped if the device is lost.

Which tablets can I rent?

At Everphone, we offer the following for rental:

• iPads from Apple,
• tablets from the Samsung Galaxy series, and
• convertible devices from the Microsoft Surface range.

Here you’ll find an overview of our tablets.

Of course, there’s also plenty of accessories available for our rental tablets, such as smart covers, keyboards, and styluses.

Renting tablets instead of buying: who is this for?

Renting tablets isn’t just for large international corporations – although one of our most exciting projects was equipping 6,000 Henkel employees with iPads.

Start-ups and mid-sized companies also benefit from rental iPads.

That said, a certain minimum company size is required for DaaS to make sense. For this reason, Everphone does not offer short-term tablet rentals of just a few devices for a couple of days (for trade fairs, festivals, or other events). Our rental periods typically start at two years – with the flexibility mentioned above.

Renting tablets with Device-as-a-Service

Renting tablets vs. leasing tablets

Some people will tell you that leasing tablets is the better option. On the surface, that may seem true – but there are many reasons why it often isn’t. You can read more about this in our article on “Unleasing.”

Renting tablets vs. buying cheap tablets

Others might claim it’s enough to buy cheap no-name tablets from eBay for your colleagues.

That’s nonsense – and the opposite is true: Device-as-a-Service combines modern technology with excellent user satisfaction. Just ask yourself whether you’d really like to work with a used, no-name tablet – or whether you’d rather have an Apple iPad or a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Use instead of own: tablet rental, responsibility, and sustainability

As an owner, you’re always responsible. You have to manage devices, comply with regulations like GDPR or NIS2, keep users happy, control costs, protect the environment, ensure security (for example antivirus on tablets), and handle administration (such as app whitelisting).

With Device-as-a-Service, we take care of all of that – because we’re the owners. We support you in securely and sensibly integrating company tablets into your corporate network. Once your requirements and compliance needs are clear, everything is implemented accordingly. From that point on, your IT team has very few tasks left. You can also define different user groups with different devices.

Renting tablets and “Choose-your-own-Device” (CYOD)

Good tablets aren’t cheap – and rental costs money too. But as an organization, you don’t have to carry the full cost alone. Employees can (optionally) contribute.

This is called “Choose-your-own-Device” (CYOD). It works like this: the company provides a base allowance that covers a basic (but fully functional) rental tablet. If users want a higher-end device, they simply pay the difference themselves. Payments can be deducted from gross or net salary – and we automatically provide the relevant data to your HR team.

Paying for a company tablet?

Sounds strange at first, but:

First, as mentioned, it can be used privately without technical restrictions.
Second, from a user perspective, it’s still significantly cheaper than buying an iPad yourself.
Third, the rental tablet comes with our unbeatable service package – including free replacement if the screen cracks, the battery fails, or any other technical defect occurs.

Renting tablets with Everphone

If you want to equip your team with tablets, DaaS is definitely the most convenient way. You stay flexible, keep costs under control, and don’t have to worry about the technology.

So before spending a large sum of money on tablets, consider whether renting might be the better option. After all, you want your team to be perfectly equipped – without the stress.