Microsoft continues to expand efforts to sell its Surface line of tablets to business and enterprise customers. The company has revealed two new programs that should make it easier for organizations to purchase said tablets. One is a new warranty program, while the other will allow businesses to trade in older devices to get credit for buying new Surface tablets.
The Microsoft Complete for Enterprise warranty program will launch in early 2016. Here are its features:
- Ability to pool warranty claims by company versus individual devices
- Allowing for warranty claims against non-bootable devices – helpful when customers have data security policies that either require a device to be wiped of all confidential information or require destruction of the hard drive prior to the device being returned under the warranty
- Next day air in the US for fastest possible device replacement, and a similar rapid replace processing for markets outside the US.
- An on-boarding center to ensure a premium experience within the first 30 days for both IT and end users – Microsoft will assist IT staff to get setup with warranty and support processes as well as provide online training for their employees to get productive as fast as possible.
The Business Device Trade-in Program is a permanent program Microsoft has set up, rather than just a temporary promotion:
"With 24 hour quotes, prepaid shipping labels and secure data wipe, business customers can trade their used business laptops, tablets, and phones for credit towards the purchase of new Surface devices. This offer will be available in the coming weeks to business customers in the US and Canada, as well as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. In the coming weeks the offer will also be available in Australia, France, Germany and the UK."
Microsoft also announced that even before the official release of the Surface Pro 4 next week, 13 large businesses and educational organizations have already pledged to buy the new 12.3-inch tablet, including Berkshire Hathaway, Land 'O Lakes and more.
Source: Microsoft
