The new offering aims to address the growing market opportunity to help users take costs out of their personal technology, or "desktop" environments, which have become less efficient as the number of personal technology devices has grown significantly. IBM WorkPlace on demand services include: Client Advantage Services, which provides fixed pricing for the IBM hardware and help desk services; Output Management Services, which consolidate of all printing and output devices, including copying, scanning and faxing to variable price-per-page billing; Consulting & Implementation Services, customized consulting services and systems to manage infrastructure; and Wireless & Mobility Services, which address the universal access needs of all workers anywhere, anytime.

The services offers businesses a new way to acquire, maintain and account for the technology their employees touch -- as a service offering on one monthly bill -- alleviating the headaches and unpredictable costs of maintaining separate fleets of printers, PCs, fax machines, copiers, and mobile devices. By providing these services under one monthly bill, users only pay and account for whatever technology services they use, allowing them to save up to 30 percent of their maintenance costs. The company also offers users the flexibility to have IBM handle the management and maintenance of non-IBM hardware, as one complete, variably-priced service package.

"In today's cost-conscious business climate, it is shocking that the cost to support and maintain front-end devices has gone largely unaccounted for by many companies," said Dev Mukherjee, vice president, marketing and strategy e-business on demand, IBM Global Services. "With the proliferation of personal devices resulting in rising costs, no major player has stepped up to offer a way to address how companies can reduce these out of control costs. IBM's WorkPlace on demand services is our bid to drive a huge shift in how technology is being delivered and consumed -- on a pay as you go basis to allow companies to purchase and account for the technology they consume."

Today many PCs, printers, copiers, scanners, fax machines and other peripherals are frequently purchased, deployed and managed in a scattered, ad-hoc manner. The cost to maintain separate fleets of printers, PCs, mobile devices and other peripherals is staggering. Industry analyst firm Meta Group estimates that maintenance and operations for a company's end-user environment can account for 80 percent of IT costs. For example, according, the average desktop PC maintenance costs a business between $2,000 and $5,000 per PC, per year, per person.

Additionally, the total cost of printing is unknown for most enterprises. Industry researcher Gartner estimates that companies may spend an average of one to three percent of their revenue on output, making it one of the most over-looked and undermanaged assets of their front-end systems.

"The cost of a PC, a printer, a copier or even a mobile device may seem deceptively inexpensive but what many people don't realize, the cost does not stop at the price tag, said Tony Martinez, vice president, strategic outsourcing, IBM Global Services. "The hidden cost lies in the maintenance and operations of these devices; Printer consumables and ongoing device maintenance run from two to five times the cost of the devices themselves. Companies -- not having been given any means to reduce the hidden cost of printing consumables and client device management -- try to manage these costs in an ad-hoc manner, often creating chaos on the balance sheet and with the IT staff."