In the light of digital transformation, manufacturing companies are challenged to rethink their business models as technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), that allow innovative product and service offerings. Equipment-as-a-service (EaaS) is a business model that combines both the product and the services needed to maintain and operate the equipment in one offering, whereas the revenue model is based on the actual value (e.g. usage-based, availability-based, outcome-based) provided. Despite high practical relevance, little is known about the required capabilities to introduce and operate such models, as this phenomenon has just started to be explored. Addressing this gap, our study aspires to provide a first understanding of which capabilities are required for introducing and operating the EaaS business model. Based on the insights gathered from interviews with 18 executives from over 14 manufacturing companies that have introduced such offerings, we present a capability model for assessing the maturity needed to introduce and offer EaaS. While bridging the gap between theory and practice, we leveraged state-of-the-art knowledge to help manufacturing companies better understand where they find themselves concerning the capabilities required to introduce and operate the EaaS model.