It is not clear what you wanna do and why you are looking for another workflow, but I could tell you that there is also ArcGIS for Windows Mobile/Tablet. It should run on Windows 8 Desktop/Mobile and it has tools to sync with an ArcGIS Desktop Client, so you do not need any Service for synchronization. ArcGIS for Windows Mobile was releases first time for ArcGIS 9.2 and was called ArcGIS Mobile in earlier times.