Most in IT think the subscription-based, as-a-service model is the best thing since sliced bread. But changes to accounting rules may cause some to question their devotion to the monthly, quarterly or yearly leasing agreements.

Doug Sobieski, financial services sales executive at Avnet Technology Solutions (a global IT distribution distributor), talked with Stu Miniman (@stu), cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during EMC World about “recently announced accounting changes that are going to require that all leases will eventually need to be on the balance sheet for the end users.” He added, “Phones are ringing with end users looking for usage-based models.”

Sobieski said that Avnet’s consumption-based master services agreement, called CapacityNow, offers one of the most transparent models available.

Distribution 2.0

Avnet bills itself as an IT distribution company — a term that John Tonthat, director of supplier solutions EMC at Avnet Technology Solutions, said needs some clarifying. In the old days, he explained, distribution was about stocking and financing products.

“I think distribution 2.0 or distribution 2.5 is about how we help accelerate our partners’ transitions in terms of IT transformation,” he said. “How do we help our partners make money and sell the solutions that continue to make them relevant?”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of EMC World 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE