Information for Business from Lenovo
Think Space
Contributor: Iain Ferguson
Is holding onto your old PCs hurting productivity?

For many businesses and government organisations facing budget constraints, it can be tempting to put off that much-needed technology refresh for another six months. However, this could cost the business or organisation considerably. 

An Intel research report found that the repair costs for older personal computers can exceed the purchase price of new PCs.

Businesses that don’t monitor new features and releases of PCs and refresh their existing fleet accordingly miss out on opportunities to improve productivity and performance. According to research conducted by Intel, small-business workers lose on average one work week per year due to old PCs, and small businesses spend 1.3 times the amount to repair a PC four or more years old compared to a newer PC. In addition, ageing PCs could also compromise workplace morale due to workers’ frustration with using older, slower technology.

According to total-cost-of-ownership models supplied by Intel, a three-year refresh cycle is optimal and delivers savings in the form of energy efficiency, security, productivity and manageability. Yet for many businesses and government organisations, refreshing personal computers every three years or less can involve considerable costs, covering procurement, deployment, training, support, recovery, accounting and other tasks or requirements. In addition, refresh exercises may divert valuable technology team resources from projects such as new product development.

So how can businesses and government organisations reduce the need to make considerable upfront investments in refreshing PC fleets while continuing to reap the rewards of regularly accessing the latest device features and technologies? The answer may lie in one of the more recent iterations of the ‘as a service’ model of acquiring technology – PC-as-a-Service (PCaaS).

By incorporating hardware, peripherals and managed services at a fixed monthly cost, PCaaS models can help businesses and government organisations lower costs and track them more easily, while focusing on core activities. Rather than endure the pain and expense of procuring PCs, IT managers can simply choose from pre-configured packages, or request their own configurations.

PCaaS providers can manage deployment of a standard operating environment, and provide support and remediation as required. Asset management and monthly reports can also be part of PCaaS to ensure the relevant internal IT team remains up to date with the status of their PC fleet.

A PCaaS provider can also manage disposal, asset recovery, and resale and PC refresh. If a business does not have the expertise to properly conduct these activities, it may be compromised in ways ranging from data security due to not completely wiping all data from the devices, environmental damage due to poor PC disposal practices, and compromised productivity due to not properly accounting for the needs of users when acquiring new PCs.

Business or organisations can also benefit from investing their technology budget on productivity tools that come with the latest PCs and devices. For example, the Lenovo ThinkPad Pen allows professionals to easily take notes in meetings and convertible devices, such as the ThinkPad X1 Yoga powered by Intel® Core™ processors™, allows them to easily switch between tablet and laptop modes when they are away from their desks. The contrast to this is having an older laptop that cannot be easily converted, and then having to make an additional tablet purchase and additional productivity tools. 

PCaaS can be a compelling opportunity to resolve many of the issues that stop businesses and government organisations from completing PC refresh cycles more regularly. Organisations don’t have to sacrifice on productivity and performance and compromise staff morale with long PC refresh cycles in order to not break the budget. PCaaS allows them to overcome the huge upfront cost barrier to procurement and lowers the burden of asset management and maintenance.

Lenovo® ThinkPad® and ThinkCentre® products, powered by Intel® processors, are optimised for long, worry-free hours of superior productivity. Speak with a Lenovo business specialist today to learn more.

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