D&H has added Microsoft Surface for Business devices to the lineup of offerings available through its Modern Solutions Business Unit.
The agreement makes it possible to include devices like Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 4, Surface Laptop Go 2, Surface Pro 8, and Surface Studio 2 in solution bundles alongside Microsoft 365 licenses and accompanying services for the first time. D&H resellers are seeing increased demand for such endpoints from businesses with hybrid workforces, according to Jason Bystrak, D&H’s vice president of modern solutions.
“More and more, they’re getting demand from their customers that are doing that to have more premium-level devices that have the richer features, the larger screens and displays, and the better video conferencing equipment,” he says. “Microsoft Surface plays right into that.”
D&H already carried consumer editions of Microsoft Surface devices. The Surface for Business units it now distributes as well come with additional security and manageability features, including support for Windows Autopilot, Microsoft’s zero-touch remote deployment and configuration tool.
Partners have been asking for access to the Surface for Business line for some time, Bystrak notes. For D&H itself, adding Surface for Business hardware closes one of the few remaining Microsoft-related gaps in the company’s catalog.
The first batch of Surface for Business products are on their way to D&H and should remain in stock going forward, according to Bystrak. “Inventory has been a challenge with supply chain across the board for the industry right now, and certainly we’re not immune to that, but I’ll tell you with Surface, we’re very excited about the inventory forecast that Microsoft’s providing.”
Launched in May, the Modern Solutions Business Unit is tasked with delivering end-to-end answers to business problems, something that was challenging for partners previously when experts on products, services, and financing were scattered across different parts of D&H.
“They were being bounced all over the place, which makes it really difficult to truly put together a solution and do it quickly,” Bystrak says. The group he now leads consolidates relevant resources in one place and provides a single initial point of contact with broad solution expertise.
“You’re instantly connected with somebody that understands all of those vendors, programs, and solutions in that category,” he says, noting that specialists with deeper knowledge of specific vendors and disciplines like financing are available from there as well. Partners can also assemble solutions on their own via D&H’s XaaS configurator tool.
At present, Bystrak’s group supports four solution categories: modern applications, which covers SaaS solutions like Microsoft 365; modern collaboration, which addresses hybrid meeting, communication, and “work from anywhere” needs; modern infrastructure, which meets needs in infrastructure as a service, cloud migration, and edge computing; and modern security, which provides SaaS cybersecurity solutions.
“There’s a lot of demand, a lot of transformation, happening in those categories,” Bystrak says.
Solutions typically include a combination of hardware and software hosted in the cloud or on premises, as well as professional services from D&H and a partner’s own services. Customers can buy the package outright or through D&H’s subscription-based XaaS program.
The Modern Solutions Business Unit currently contains more than 125 people in capacities ranging from business development and technical enablement to sales, marketing, and customer success. The group incorporates the Cloud and Services Business Unit that Bystrak had led since late 2020 plus product-specific units for vendors like Cisco.
Beyond Microsoft, other Modern Solutions vendor partners include Acronis, Axcient, Liongard, Nerdio, Nextiva, SkyKick, SonicWall, Sophos, and OpenText. Configure-to-order solutions from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, including solutions based on HPE’s as-a-service GreenLake platform, have been available too since June.
PC sales have slowed recently after an extended hot streak, declining 12.6% year over year in the second quarter of 2022, according to Gartner. Recent data from employee experience management vendor Nexthink, however, shows that only about 40% of PCs running Windows 10 today are ready to run Windows 11, suggesting that plenty of endpoint sales opportunities remain. Support for Windows 10 ends in October 2025.
