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Company phones are one of the more underestimated IT headaches at scale. Procurement happens through multiple vendors, devices arrive unconfigured, broken phones sit in queues waiting for repair approval, and offboarded employees leave hardware unaccounted for. Smartphone as a Service, also called Phone as a Service, puts all of that under a single monthly subscription.
devicenow offers Smartphone as a Service for organizations with 1,000 or more IT seats, covering procurement, pre-configuration, delivery, next business day swap, and certified data erasure at end of life, across 190+ countries, under one contract.
Smartphone as a Service is a subscription model where your organization pays a fixed monthly fee per device instead of purchasing phones outright. The monthly fee covers the hardware and the full lifecycle around it: staging and provisioning, delivery to the employee’s location, break & fix support, and responsible end-of-life management.
It differs from pay monthly phone plans offered by carriers in one fundamental way: carrier plans are primarily about connectivity. Smartphone as a Service is about device lifecycle management. You get a pre-configured phone, delivered ready to use, backed by a concrete replacement SLA if it fails, and retired through a documented process that includes certified data erasure. The carrier relationship remains separate.
For large enterprises managing hundreds or thousands of company phones across multiple countries, this distinction matters. Carrier plans don’t solve the provisioning problem, the replacement logistics problem, or the data security problem at end of life. Smartphone as a Service addresses all three.
Our Smartphone as a Service model follows the same full lifecycle approach as its other device categories.
Our smartphone catalog includes iOS and Android devices across multiple tiers, accessories including AirPods Pro 2 and Galaxy Buds Pro 2 Wireless are available alongside smartphone subscriptions. The full portfolio can be aligned to your role requirements during onboarding.
Organizations evaluating Smartphone as a Service often compare it to buying devices directly or sourcing through carrier contracts. The table below shows where the operational differences land:
| Outright Purchase | Carrier Pay Monthly | Smartphone as a Service | |
| Upfront cost | High | None or low | None |
| Provisioning / staging | Your IT team | Your IT team | devicenow |
| Break & fix | Your IT team | Your IT team | devicenow |
| End-of-life / data erasure | Your IT team | Your IT team | devicenow |
| Cost type | CapEx | OpEx | OpEx |
| Global coverage | Multiple vendors | Varies by country | 190+ countries, one contract |
| Billing flexibility | None | Fixed plan | Active devices only |
The operational shift is the point. Smartphone as a Service doesn’t just change how you pay for phones. It moves the procurement, support, and end-of-life responsibilities out of your IT team’s workload entirely.
Managing company phones across a large organization involves more than just buying hardware. Every new hire needs a phone on day one. Every departure needs a secure wipe and return process. Every device failure needs a resolution that doesn’t leave the employee without a working phone for days.
At scale, these individual events add up to a significant operational burden. Our service model addresses each one through a standardized global process. Onboarding is handled through pre-configured devices shipped directly to the employee. Offboarding is handled through a straightforward return process with certified data erasure. Failures are handled through next business day swap, regardless of location.
For IT teams managing phones across multiple countries, the alternative is typically a combination of local vendors, local carrier contracts, and local support arrangements that vary by region. Our offer consolidates all of this under one partner, one contract, and one standard process.
Our dedicated Lifecycle Portal gives IT teams a single platform to manage the full smartphone lifecycle: order new devices, track inventory, raise incidents, and process end-of-life returns. Access is secured via SSO with configurable roles and permissions.
The integrated webshop lets authorized users order devices directly without going through a separate procurement process. Incident handling and replacement requests are managed in the same interface.
If your organization uses procurement or ITSM tools like ServiceNow or SAP, API integration connects directly with your existing workflows at no additional cost. Device orders, incident updates, SLA data, and delivery tracking flow automatically into your systems without requiring parallel administration.
Smartphones carry sensitive data: emails, authentication credentials, access to corporate systems. When a device leaves an employee’s hands, whether through offboarding, loss, or end of contract, data security is a compliance concern, not just a best practice.
End-of-life process includes certified data erasure for every returned device. You receive a certificate confirming the wipe, which provides an auditable record for compliance and security reporting. Devices that can be refurbished re-enter use through circular economy process. Those that can’t are recycled responsibly.
This matters at scale. Managing data erasure manually across hundreds of returned devices, across multiple countries, creates real compliance risk. A standardized process with documented output removes that risk.
Consumer electronics, and smartphones in particular, have a significant environmental footprint. A subscription model built around refurbishment and reuse reduces the number of new devices manufactured and the volume of e-waste generated.
Our circular economy approach means that returned devices are assessed for reuse before recycling. Refurbishable phones re-enter service rather than going to landfill. For organizations with ESG commitments or sustainability reporting requirements, this provides a measurable and documented contribution, not just a policy statement.
If your organization manages 1,000 or more IT seats and wants to simplify company phone provisioning, eliminate repair logistics, and get predictable per-device costs across all locations, devicenow’s Smartphone as a Service is built for that. Fixed monthly price per device. Next business day replacement. Full lifecycle managed. One contract for 190+ countries.
