“The group surveyed 260 IT administrators in large U.S. companies with both Macs and PCs who are involved in some degree with IT cost calculations,” Kaneshige reports. “Enterprise Desktop Alliance members include Centrify, Absolute Software, Group Logic, Web Help Desk, and most recently IBM.”
“The survey found that Macs were cheaper in six of seven computer management categories: troubleshooting, help desk calls, system configuration, user training and supporting infrastructure (servers, networks and printer). Nearly half of the respondents cited software licensing fees as roughly the same for both platforms,” Kaneshige reports. “A whopping 65 percent of respondents said it costs less to troubleshoot Macs than PCs, 19 percent said they spent the same on both computers, and only 16 percent said they spent less to manage PCs than Macs.”
Kaneshige reports, “Even more impressive, a majority of the respondents citing the low cost of Macs in nearly all categories said Macs were more than 20 percent cheaper to manage than PCs.”
“With Macs dominating in almost every cost category, why would 16 percent claim they spent less troubleshooting PCs? ‘It might be an [issue] of expertise of the IT staff,’ says Tom Cromlin, spokesperson for the Enterprise Desktop Alliance. ‘They’re probably more comfortable troubleshooting PCs,’” Kaneshige reports. “Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Jon Oltsik has another reason. He says top execs often prefer Macs, and thus supporting those machines take on more importance. ‘It’s not about managing [Mac] systems, which may be easier than Windows’ on a machine-by-machines basis, Oltsik explains. ‘It’s when the CEO wants IT to install software on his or her Mac, which will need immediate attention and take time away from other tasks.’”
Kaneshige reports, “Many small companies with limited IT resources told CIO.com that they moved to Macs after getting fed up with costly PC support issues… Many companies told CIO.com that the low cost of managing Macs more than makes up the cost difference between the computers.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yet more support of what many of us already know to be true.
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