Macs Saving IBM Money on IT Management Despite Higher Up Front Cost

[MacRumors]

IBM this year began adopting Macs for its employees, a move the company says has been highly successful. Speaking at the JAMF Nation User Conference (via AppleInsider) earlier this week, IBM vice president of Workplace-as-a-Service Fletcher Previn said that far fewer Mac users require help with their machines than IBM's PC users.

"Every Mac that we buy is making and saving IBM money," he said, as the Macs require less management and setup effort than PCs, even though they cost more up front.

Just five percent of employees using Macs call IBM's internal help desk for troubleshooting, while 40 percent of the company's PC users make calls to the help desk. According to Previn, these numbers point towards the Mac's ease of use and the solid job the IBM team has done setting up Macs at the company. IBM's Mac onboarding experience is highly streamlined, making it easy for employees to do much of the setup work themselves in a short period of time.

IBM's deployment allows for employees to receive a shrink-wrapped, brand new Mac and quickly and easily set it up on their own. Using Apple's Device Enrollment Program and JAMF Software's Casper Suite, users set up and install IT-approved apps, software and configurations.

JAMF Software's Self Service allows IBM and its employees a simple method for installing licensed software. In an example given by Previn, the employee simply needs to click install for Microsoft Office, and IT will handle the licensing on the backend without exposing any of it to the user.

IBM is rolling out 1,900 Macs to its employees each week, and there are more than 130,000 iOS and Mac devices being used by IBM employees at the current time. In July, IBM CIO Jeff Smith said he thought IBM might end up purchasing 150,000 to 200,000 Macs on a regular basis for the company's 400,000 employees.

As of 2014, Apple and IBM have been working together to create specialized enterprise-focused apps and services for iOS devices. Under the partnership, IBM is selling iOS devices to its corporate customers, developing apps, and providing on-demand AppleCare service.

Article Link: Macs Saving IBM Money on IT Management Despite Higher Up Front Cost

 

[avalys]

Great news! Apple finally making inroads into large businesses will only make things better for desktop Mac users.

 

[CadenZ15]

With Mac you pay for quality and a better system

 

[Pelea]

what exactly is easier to do on a mac than a pc? i've tried both and macs simply have less customization than pcs..?

 

[cariacou]

very curious. I wonder what a similar report will show 1 year from now when more than just the Apple Fan IBM Employees have Apple computers

 

[macduke]

So how long until Microsoft switches to Macs while shifting their entire focus to services?

 

[pat500000]

I guess if you can't sell enough low budget iwack (latest iMac) and wackPros, I guess IBM would buy it.

 

[macrumorsuser10]

Macs require less management and setup effort than PCs, even though they cost more up front ...

Just five percent of employees using Macs call IBM's internal help desk for troubleshooting, while 40 percent of the company's PC users make calls to the help desk.

This is not a fair comparison. In general, Mac users are more intelligent than PC users. That's why the Macs require less management and help from the sys admins.

 

[Markoth]

As a user of three OSes, I'd say "you're just figuring this out now?", but I suppose this is a big step for a behemoth such as IBM, so good to hear!

what exactly is easier to do on a mac than a pc? i've tried both and macs simply have less customization than pcs..?

PCs quite simply tend to have more problems than Macs. Yes, the more limited selection of hardware helps, among other things, but regardless of the reason, it is definitely so. Lower cost for both setup and management. That's what Macs get you.

 

[jkichline]

This seems to align with my personal experience in system administration. When I was a .NET programmer and running Windows, I was terrible ineffective and spent a lot of time troubleshooting issues or helping others with problems on their own Windows machines. I switched to Mac in 2006 and I could have been happier. My blood pressure is down and my productivity is up. I can tell Windows users I don't know how to fix their problem (because I honestly don't know what to do with that 40-bit hexadecimal error code in the registry) and I just hook them up with Macs. I set them up and basically forget them.

 

[dstud208]

10 years ago I never would have guessed this would happen.

 

[ChazSch]

I guess if you can't sell enough low budget iwack (latest iMac) and wackPros, I guess IBM would buy it.

I am confused...are you saying the iMacs are not good computers? I guess everyone can have an opinion, altho that one is terribly misguided.

 

[dscottbuch]

This is not a fair comparison. In general, Mac users are more intelligent than PC users. That's why the Macs require less management and help from the sys admins.

So, the 10,000+ IBM employees that have been upgraded we all, already Mac users? (They are doing 1,900/week!) Very doubtful. This is actually a very good test of both platforms.

 

[macs4nw]

Music to Tim's ears..... he just heard angels sing.

The kind of publicity money can't buy.

 

[jkichline]

This is not a fair comparison. In general, Mac users are more intelligent than PC users. That's why the Macs require less management and help from the sys admins.

Of course they are more intelligent. They chose to buy a Mac, didn't they?

 

[sransari]

what exactly is easier to do on a mac than a pc? i've tried both and macs simply have less customization than pcs..?

From my experience, it's more than just the difference between Mac OS and Windows. For example, I use my personal Mac when I work from home, and I boot into windows and use the same Windows OS and Windows apps that I do at work. But I have a MUCH better experience using my Mac (which is 7 years old compared to my work comp which is a nearly brand new and supposedly high-end Dell with solid specs). On my mac, unlike my company-supplied Dell, there is no lag when I have multiple apps and windows open, fewer apps crashing, etc. Since the only difference between the two is the hardware, it's clear that Apple hardware and hardware integration is far superior than that of other PC manufacturers.

 

[StrangeNoises]

what exactly is easier to do on a mac than a pc? i've tried both and macs simply have less customization than pcs..?

Well that is part of it. It's harder for a user to get themselves into a mess. It accords to my (and probably many people's) anecdotal experience: Those family members I could persuade to get a mac (in my sister's case, for years handing down my older ones), thereafter needed much less help. They could, for the most part, look after themselves.

 

[v04bvs]

This is not a fair comparison. In general, Mac users are more intelligent than PC users. That's why the Macs require less management and help from the sys admins.

Exactly my thought. And Linux users probably will help other users It doesn't mean that Linux is easier than OS X or Windows.

But overall I agree that OS X generally easier to manage than Windows for average user. It's not that easy to get 50 toolbars or catch a lot of malware and viruses as it is for Windows. Probably because Macs are rare in comparison to Windows, so virusmakers just don't paying much attention, but end result is the same: Macs require less maintenance.

 

[Glassed Silver]

what exactly is easier to do on a mac than a pc? i've tried both and macs simply have less customization than pcs..?

May I ask how long and how intensively you have been using them?

Many things I found became apparent after a while only.

Personally, but this is just ONE example of many, I find maintaining and fixing a Mac to be much more straightforward and I'm working on both a lot.

Also I found, but this is less about simplicity, that OS X's interface is much much more to my liking visually and the polish of the design (granted, it's taken a hit somewhat with Yosemite) is better than Windows' too.
In the end I get to feel more "at home" (and this is not just an impression of someone who's been using Macs for over 9 years now, I felt the same after days back in 2006) and that has a positive effect on my productivity and motivation.
Sometimes work is actually fun, it might sound crazy, but the GUI of Mac apps (at least the good ones, the ever increasing popularity of Mac attracted a lot of crap and poorly designed software unfortunately over the years) is so good that you really feel comfortable doing even less enjoyable tasks.

So there's some personal impressions, YMMV.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[Duane Martin]

very curious. I wonder what a similar report will show 1 year from now when more than just the Apple Fan IBM Employees have Apple computers

So according to you the 130 000 Apple devices deployed to IBMs 400 000 employees have all gone to previous Apple fans? Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that IBM had that many Apple fans. I wonder if all large, PC-oriented companies are hiding closeted Apple fans?

Or you could be wrong and the Apple experience really is better. Hmmm....

 

[johnnyrb]

Macs are more expensive. However, they last longer than anything on the market.

 

[sransari]

Sounds like Macs are killing jobs lol

 

[mkenney]

what exactly is easier to do on a mac than a pc? i've tried both and macs simply have less customization than pcs..?

Do you do any programming? Most software is geared toward Unix variants and its much much easier to program on a Mac since its built on a BSD core. Also not all customization is good, it can often lead to issues. The rate of support calls are a great indicator of that.

 

[Junipr]

Always been true: You get what you pay for with Mac.

 

[2457282]

I tend to be the help desk for my friends and family, and without a doubt, once I convince them to go Apple, i support them a lot less. They control the hardware, OS, and even the apps now. It is a great formula for interoperability that the windows world cannot match since the hardware, the OS, and the apps are made by different vendors and without a lot of coordination.

Yes people are whining about the 5400 rpm drives, the non replaceable memory chips, etc. I too would prefer higher end components, but the truth is that my statement above is not altered by the particular component. Apple owns the interoperability and integration across all layers and that means you will always have less issues.