“You can’t blame them I suppose,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld. “They don’t really know any better, but the latest IBM report is attracting attention because, well, because it pretty much tells any open minded person that Macs are a better deal, even in the enterprise.”
“‘Mac users need less IT support,’ according to IBM, which is currently deploying 1,900 Macs per week,” Evan writes. “The difference in IT support needs is stark – just five percent of employees using Macs need help from IBM’s tech support helpline in contrast to 40 percent (eight times as many) employees using PCs. It means IBM has just 24 help desk staff to support around 130,000 Macs and iOS devices internally.”
“That’s a staggering difference in IT support costs – and lets you redeploy your tech support assets on improving your business systems, rather than simply keeping the lights on, or as IBM explains it, “every Mac that we buy is making and saving IBM money,'” Evan writes. “You have to understand why they [the IT doofuses – MDN Ed.] hate Macs. They have a vested interest in the old ways of doing things, but you, as a CIO, need to be able to make future focused decisions that are rooted in the future, not the past.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, we’ll keep trumpeting this until the cows come home.
What a waste of productivity the Microsoft Windows Dark Ages of Personal Computing hath wrought! Wasteful and Painful. And even more painful if you lived through it as a Mac user and knew the truth while IT doofuses waddled around patching things that would never have been broken if only they were smart enough to use Macs instead of crappy Windows PCs.
Note to CEOs: Your IT department should not be making final hardware and software purchasing decisions. They should be supporting your company’s technology needs. You should get independent viewpoints (find people who recommend Macs and make them explain why) and retain the decision-making role for yourselves. Don’t settle for Windows-only shackles. A marked increase in productivity and reliability for your company is there for the taking. You can get Macs and seamlessly integrate them into your business – even if all you do at first is run Windows on them. You can explore Mac OS X and better ways of doing things according to your own timeline (hint: start by using Keynote instead of PowerPoint for your presentations and watch your audiences perk up). Just don’t expect your IT people to ever recommend Apple, as they may have ulterior motives for sticking with Microsoft. — MacDailyNews, January 2, 2007
Why are so many people so afraid to imagine an end to the dark ages of personal computing? Too many MSFT shares in the mutual fund? We have no such problem. Apple Mac will embrace, then extinguish – whether analysts grasp what’s happening or not. — MacDailyNews, March 23, 2007
SEE ALSO:
IBM: Corporate Mac users need less IT support than those stuck on Windows – October 18, 2015
Just 5% of Mac users at IBM need help desk support vs. 40% of Windows PC sufferers – October 15, 2015
To us long time MAC users this is very old news. This has been proved over and over again. But the doofuses keep pushing the same old crap. At least things appear to be changing now.
“What a waste of productivity the Microsoft Windows Dark Ages of Personal Computing hath wrought!”
Amen. And it continues with Mac Office. I know at least 3 serious bugs that haven’t been fixed since Word (at least) 5.1a.
That is the game they are playing now at Apple.
Selling us a service that is constantly under construction, billing us to improve it… What a spectacular, tempting occasion.
I guess I am getting old.
And that is not cool anymore, right?
#fi
Err… the MacOffice game is played at/by Micro$oft—not Apple…😒
The pot at the end of the rainbow IS NOT the dollars saved hiring 100 (or whatever the number is) less IT staff. The pot at the end of the rainbow is the amount of time and frustration saved by the 130,000 employees.
I am doing some consulting for a company that requires I use one of their Windows laptops.
That thing is so locked down I can’t change any settings including the screen brightness, it locked on dim.
Good description of their IT: “Locked on dim.”
A portable electric typewriter and a pager would have more functionality than your current setup.
Even the pro-Winblows Gartner Group published this “news” many, many years ago.
Spent 25 years suffering this in particular IT morons deliberately buying server options that deliberately kept macs out or difficult to connect to just so they could claim we needed to move to PCs so that they in turn could impose themselves into our department. They very nearly got away with this on the macro scale, scary when I think back and had SJ not returned when he did that end would have been nearly certain.
They really are morons. Virtually none have relevant academic qualifications – most got into the field by cheating at an MCSE exam. They’re innumerate, have appalling grammar and lack even the most basic of critical thinking skills. I refuse to address any of them as ‘engineer’ because they’re quite clearly nothing of the sort. Fake-ass imposters and charlatans every last one of them.
In many cases the Microsoft server options were the most scalable and functional, that’s why they got purchased. Where was Apple’s competitor to Exchange, or Sharepoint, for example? **watches tumbleweed**
Face it guys, if Apple had given a flying fuck about the enterprise Microsoft wouldn’t have had the open field they enjoyed.
Yes, Apple ignored the enterprise because they couldn’t afford to address the market when they were hurting bad in the 90’s.
But they have deliberately left the enterprise to Microsoft for a good reason lately. Let Microsoft feed at the enterprise trough. As long as they do so they will never be hungry for the consumer market. That is where Apple shines. The enterprise market is now much smaller than the consumer market. Eventually, enterprise gets squeezed from the bottom by Chrome, etc.
Then MSFT has no way out. They can’t compete with the bottom feeders and can’t compete with Apple for consumers. Game over.
I am going to disagree. I work in education with 80% Mac vs PC deployment. There is no job security issues here with that kind of thinking. Want to worry about job security? Worry about Chrome books and upper management.
I am sure you have a reason to disagree, but it wasn’t clear from your post. 80% Mac vs. PC deployment is a very healthy Mac user base, which, should mean, based on what the article states, that the IT support team is rather small; if the IBM’s experience is any benchmark, your IT support staff for Windows is likely about the same size as for Mac (4x the user base).
The article argues that the primary resistance forces to Mac in traditional enterprise IT shops is due to this fear for job security. If IT allows Mac deployment, demand for support will drop, and so will the number of IT support jobs. Enterprise IT staff have vested interest in resisting Mac deployment and pushing Windows; the first one will cost them jobs; the second will guarantee job security.
I’m not sure how to interpret the comment about Chrome books and upper management, how they are related to each other (or to job security).
I was saying, there’s plenty of work even for Macs. We have Macs coming in, every day. Some models are nightmares.
It’s appliance Chrome books that have little maintenance to worry about. But that’s not the end of the story. They don’t do anything anyway. It’s all web based. This isn’t an endorsement. Management sees this and thinks that what’s easier for IT, is easier for the end user. Most employees don’t need general computing. It used to be, everything was on dumb terminals. What comes around, goes around.
So management is still somehow bamboozled by anything technical, and so IT still has cards to play. What a Punch and Judy show of laziness, cowardice, and incompetence.
It’s the point you fellas always miss –
Windows = more jobs. More jobs = good for everyone,
especially imbecile Mac users who don’t realize
their exclusive classy Apple gizmos would stop
being exclusive or classy if everyone used them.
BMW needs Chevrolet on order to continue to
be BMW. If everyone drove BMWs…
You dorks should pray that Apple
never outsells Windows.
You are fighting with straw men and you pronounce yourself both a champion and a genius because of it.
Quality is measurable. People seek quality when they have a choice.
No, BMW needs no-one to continue being what they do. You are using relativist thinking, which demonstrates your immaturity. People who make quality goods have their own internal standards. Apple has them and that is why they do what they do.
You deserve Windows. Go use it and curse at the screen some more. We know you do.
Hey, straw man… or would that be ‘scarecrow’? Quality is relative, the only differentiating variable being taste and the breadth (or in this case, depths) of the wills (collective or singular) of those who defend their’s. Apple and Microsoft, Intel and AMD, Samsung and Sony, they all make quality products, those interpretations dependents on the taste of the consumer. As for your declaration that I am a genius and a champion, well… we all eventually learn that beauty is not the only thing in the eye of the beholder. So while I might otherwise thank you for the appellation, perhaps there might be consideration that some interpretations, not saying your’s specifically, could be comparable to the perspective of the ant who thinks the grasshopper is a very tall dude.
your arguments lack logic:
“Windows = more jobs. More jobs = good for everyone”
No, jobs that WASTE human resources is not good for everyone. if Jobs were universally ‘good’ then why don’t people be employed, millions of them BLOWING SOAP BUBBLES ALONG THE HIGHWAY? Jobs should be PRODUCTIVE, add value to the human race , not WASTE resources.
If they used Macs the freed IT staff could be REDEPLOYED elsewhere, actually fewer need to trained for Windows support in the first place , these people could have learnt something else, as they are tech inclined (a RARE resource!) they could have gone into ROBOTICS, new ENERGY etc. , maybe they could have made a breakthrough in fusion reactors or something.. instead they are wasted fixing Windows bugs.
Windows support IT staff.. using tech brain power to be HUMAN SOCKET WRENCHES and OIL CANS.. sad.
——
“especially imbecile Mac users who don’t realize
their exclusive classy Apple gizmos would stop
being exclusive or classy if everyone used them”
huh?
Most mac users are confident enough not to be bothered by what others think (PROOF: we used them even before Apple’s resurgence when the whole world was laughing at us ) . My Mac Pros for example are in in my studio hidden from outsiders, I use them because them because they are more productive , more hassle free and I ENJOY using them (unlike the PCs I had years ago).
“Most mac users are confident enough not to be bothered by what others think”
That’s why you and all the others come on here and pile on Windows every time there’s an article about these trumpeted deficiencies. That’s your ‘confidence’ and commensurate self esteem in such abundant evidence. Good sports all, the unbiased fair shake, sure; only ever the objective assessment. Certainly no capricious sniveling rats finding identity in cloistered cabals… one of us, one of us, one of us.. Yeah, that never happens.
More jobs are good for everyone.
Meaningful jobs are good for people, not useless dead end jobs. People want to make a difference, not just exist with some paltry sum of money.
Okay, mouseclick hero, it’s easy for Nobel laureates like you to denigrate others, we get that. But when that prize money runs out and all the physics labs won’t hire a known primadonna, you’ll be grateful to go back to the french fry station when your yacht payments are weeks past due.
“hat’s why you and all the others come on here and pile on Windows ”
LOL,
you guys are so worried that YOU come HERE an APPLE fan site to defend windows!
“trumpeted deficiencies”
if you think IBM stats of way fewer IT staff needed for Macs vs Windows is not significant we KNOW we are not arguing with a logical person….
The Dell workstations we buy are about the same price as my 27inch iMac. The Dells get refreshed every 3 years..my Mac, about every 4 or so (I can’t justify replacing to myself when it works fine still). Depending on the configuration, Macs can actually be CHEAPER in initial cost too!
Opposition from IT staff is more likely to stem from their investment in Microsoft training and qualifications. If you are an MCSE and your employer moves to Mac your experience and certifications become more or less worthless.
This is not so much of an issue for senior staff who don’t get their hands dirty at a technical level.
MDS’s take is very short-sighted. I’m in charge of a very large enterprise – over 50K users, nearly 25K employer-owned devices (99.9% are Windows-based), and over 70K user-owned devices. I use a Mac to manage everything (though, to be fair, a Windows VM, or an RDP session into a Windows-based server, may be required to fully manage all facets of the enterprise). My main job is to protect the users FROM EACH OTHER. It doesn’t matter if their device is Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc. – I have to worry about data security and integrity.
I’m a huge Mac proponent. I’ve been fighting, for years, to get the leadership to agree to allow Macs on the “internal” network. I finally succeed, and what do I get? A never-ending stream of questions, complaints, and requests from the small number of Mac users. Truly, I see significantly more service tickets – per capita – from the small number of Mac users than from the Windows users.
Why? Because the great majority of Mac users on the network are new to MacOS. They wanted a Mac – for whatever reason – but don’t know how to use it in an enterprise environment. They take no time to self-educate. Of course, the same can be said for the Windows users in our environment, but we so tightly manage the Windows computers (custom desktop, restricted menus, scripts, etc.) that the user doesn’t HAVE to think.
The Macs are FAR LESS managed. In fact, they’re really not managed at all, save for being on a separate VLAN with appropriate ACLs. The users have free reign to do with the computers as they please…yet the service tickets continue to pour in.
If the computer is in the hands of a reasonably-educated user, their support needs will be low regardless of client OS…but give a Mac to a fuc#w1t, and they’ll cause just as many headaches as some Windows users.
I’m curious about one other thing that I’d really like you to address. I am one of just a few Mac users in a very windows-centered environment. I take care of myself so IT likes me just fine. The IT people that we have though complain about one thing more than any other when it comes to Macs:
They are chatty. Allegedly, Macs use much more bandwidth and send many more packets than their Windows counterparts. Is this true, or is IT blowing smoke? They tell me that this is the number one complaint about Macs in every conference they go to about networking, etc.
Bonjour is the problem – it’s very, VERY chatty. That said, a properly designed network should have no trouble with it since Bonjour isn’t natively routable, so that traffic would only impact clients on the same logical network.
Put “Little Snitch” on your Mac and see what is accessing the network. After Snow Leopard, OS X and Apple apps started “phoning home” at an insane number of times. I suspect this is all of Apple’s push to get everybody on iCloud but I don’t care for it at all.
I liked the good ol’ days when the OS only went out on the Internet when I told it to check for updates.
I’d be concerned that “Little Snitch” lives up to the full measure of it’s name and subsequently also snitches on you.
“Cletorus”,
You are an uninformed idiot, that obviously knows little about Macs or how Little Snitch works. And why are you wasting your (and our) time posting on an Apple-centric site in the first place?
Yes. Just giving people Macs who are used to Windows is not as easy as one might think. Like AtomicBearpaw said, people who are reasonably educated with computers will adapt quickly to Windows, Mac or whatever. But those who aren’t used to computing in general, Windows or Mac, will not adjust easily to either. They will struggle because they have no willingness to learn.
I’m a managed I.T. service provider, and most of my customers are Mac users. Macs need support too, but the types of issues faced by Mac users in businesses are a lot different from the ones faced by Windows users. Still, there are a lot of things that are the same. Mac users can have failed hard drives. Mac users can have email problems, printing issues, problems opening files, issues with getting in the internet, etc. These things are a lot less difficult to fix on a Mac. One thing to consider is IBM’s use of Casper from JAMF Software. Casper allows I.T. admins to create a much better user experience, and make dealing with support issues a lot easier on everyone. I use Casper with my customers and I love it.
Speaking as an IT support person with both Windows and Mac experience for the last 15+ years I can tell you what matters most in this equation is the end user. Right now, IBM is deploying Macs to end users who want Macs and most likely have a level of experience using them. That makes them a) less likely to need the higher level of support most daily users need and b) more likely to be able to resolve the issue they come upon. Your average computer user that does not actively choose an Apple product will most likely require more support if a hardware change is made. It is a fact that most users only know how to operate the software they use and have a hard time relating what they know to unfamiliar systems.
The school I currently work at could learn (and ‘earn’) from breaking from the M$ prison. Over summer vacation they “upgraded” to new (windoze) laptops and desktops. They ALSO added surface pro 3 tablets (in a 1 to 1 ration) to ‘supplement’ the laptops. I’ve watched 2-3 regular IT people struggle to administer the laptops and tablets and 2 or 3 times have a seen a group of 4 or more additional IT people come in to do work on setting up the tablets. It is SO Painful to see!
I am a Mac user, love them to death. Wouldn’t use anything else at home.
I am also an IT Engineer. Macs are terrible for work. Most AD servers are Windows, management tools are way better for Windows and collaboration with Macs leaves a lot to be desired.
Even simple things like Skype for Business (which requires an old XP cipher for Macs to work right!) and Office (which are NOT the same by any stretch of the imagination on Mac) just cause IT a lot of frustration. Before I hear all the “well, if it wasn’t a mixed environment” blah, blah, blah…the truth of the matter is that is it, and not in Mac’s favor.
The Enterprise has matured on Windows, most storage systems and server caliber hardware is Windows related. Yes, Macs can do some stuff, but the tools are downright painful to use.
I support both Mac and Windows in the environment, so I disagree with this falsehood.
I’ve mentioned this on here before but back when I was in IT support, there was a time when Dell was on of our official suppliers. One of my departments decided they wanted certain Dell machines on their desks as part of a refresh so we put in the order.
For fun, I also priced out what it would have cost to install 20 inch iMacs instead. Same processor and memory spec, etc. The iMac purchase would have been cheaper than the Dells, even factoring in a Windows license for each machine.
Of course, we didn’t do that, but it was interesting.
Overall, when it came to support my experience echoed this story. Once they were up and running I almost never heard from my Mac users.
Its really less about the computer, and more about the amazing stupidity of people that cannot grasp simple and basic computer knowledge, even though they have been using computers for ages.
No support for a OS that can barely maintain an SMB connection without throwing a wobbly and regularly breaks apps with it’s updates?
That’s rubbish. While Mac users make for 10% of my customers, supporting them takes half of the available time for support.
Support case: multiplatform software.
PC user: hits ALT+PrtScrn and attaches PNG or JPG file to email.
Mac user: never sends screenshots without being asked for, then gets the digicam and sents me a 10 megapixel “screenshot” in original format. 5 out of 10 do that, 4 out of 10 know how to make a screenshot but send me their entire desktop in TIFF format.
Another comparison:
PC user: emails because he has a problem setting up the software, saying “I have a hard time setting up the software, can you help?”
Mac user: red lava shines through the email client when highlighting their email, smoke fills the room when opening it. “I already installed your stupid software you amateurs, what do I have to do to make it work??? Somebody phone me right now!!!” (doesn’t leave phone number).
Another one:
PC user: downloads software, installs it.
Mac user: contacts support because he/she doesn’t know how to install software in general, what to do with the downloaded simple installer. One gal asked us when we come to install the software. Sure, that may take a while tho, we need to find our canoe and the paddles first then we come over the ocean anytime soon.
True stories…