These days, just about everything is a service or a subscription. If you need proof, just think about your Apple Music, Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max subscriptions. The thought leaders at Xyte pose a natural question: When will the hardware-as-a-service revolution come to the commercial AV industry? The company offers a first-of-its-kind cloud platform that bridges the gap between hardware devices and modern cloud applications. As such, Xyte will likely play a big part in the future of hardware-as-a-service in our industry. So, what will the revolution look like? Commercial Integrator spoke to Omer Brookstein, co-founder and CEO of Xyte, to get the answers. We present the complete video interview here.
Xyte Defines the Hardware-as-a-Service Business Model
Brookstein begins by acknowledging that these conversations have been ongoing, but he clarifies what hardware-as-a-service really means. He says, “We have been discussing hardware-as-a-service business models in our industry for many years, but, in reality, most of what we see today is just leasing.” Pinpointing the difference, Brookstein points to Microsoft 365. The various plans offer users the option to subscribe to tools like Exchange Server as a service—not as a leased server. “While that might sound small,” he continues, “it’s a very big difference.”
During the video interview, Brookstein explains Xyte’s offering as a CDMP—a connected devices management platform. He explains this as follows: “[It’s] a suite of cloud-based tools that allows hardware manufacturers to ‘cloudify’—to connect hardware devices to the cloud—and introduce this new as-a-service business model.” Brookstein describes this opportunity as transformative, saying that, until quite recently, hardware manufacturers simply didn’t have the same suite of cloud-based tools that software manufacturers had. Changing that dynamic, he said, is what Xyte is all about.
During the video interview, Brookstein also describes how the as-a-service model represents a paradigm-shifting change: It alters the conversation from being one about customer acquisition to being one about customer retention. “We have to make sure that our customers are satisfied and are constantly getting the level of support that they’re expecting,” he observes.
For insight into all this and more, be sure to check out the video interview!
