Intel vPro Expert Center Blog

PC Refresh Costs - Penny Wise?

scott1.e.smith@intel.com — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:10:36 GMT

Intel recently commissioned a study, conducted by Wipro Product Strategy and Services, that analyzed the costs of refreshing business PC fleets. Wipro interviewed CIOs and IT professionals from 106 companies in the U.S., United Kingdom and Germany on many different aspects of the refresh equation, but three stood out as the most important to businesses – security, cost reduction and payback period.

Security is a big concern for businesses these days and their angst appears to be well founded. According to the study, by the time a PC is four years old, security incidents have increased 52 percent from when it was new. You don’t want to even peek at the data about what happens after that.

Software-based attacks, viruses and other threats continue to grow, of course, and that's the reason Intel has focused so much attention on incorporating new ways to defend against these attacks into its platforms. The 3X performance increase in the latest Intel Core2 processors help to keep antivirus software, patches and encryption from bogging down the system. A host of features incorporated into Intel vPro technology have been aimed across the board at the points of vulnerability to protect applications, the platform and the network.

The big question keeping CFOs and CIOs awake at night revolves around how often to buy new PCs. If we could only get by for one more year…. The study found that operational costs of four-year-old PCs can be reduced up to 52 percent for laptops and 46 percent for desktops by purchasing new systems. In addition to rising maintenance costs, year four also is typically when warranties have expired and companies begin picking up the repair tab.

To make the data more meaningful, Wipro used the data from the companies polled to create a “model company.” The model company has 11,500 mobile PCs and 19,300 desktop computers at various ages. For the first three years, acquisition and maintenance costs decline, but going into year four they begin to rise at a steepening rate. The data shows that if the model company replaces its PCs at three years it saves $3 million versus holding off for just one more year. The study also found that costs could be reduced another $3 million with vPro technology. Wipro also determined that the model company would recoup its investment in 17 months by just purchasing new computers, but would it get its investment back in 10 months with vPro technology-based systems even with a $150 premium for the systems.

OK, I can feel the doubters – the study is by a reputable research company and appears objective, but it was commissioned by Intel…and it’s a PR guy interpreting it. So, let’s get away from empirical evaluation and hear from someone whose business strategy reflects the results of the study to see how he’s faring. Terry Jocelyn is president of Western Blue, a Northern California-based service and solution provider for more than 20 years. Western Blue is implementing laptops and desktop systems based on Intel Core2 processors and vPro technology. I had a chance to talk with him recently about how PC refresh and vPro technology worked into his business strategy and benefited his customers.

New ROI Tool and Study for Intel Centrino with vPro technology

justin.van.buren@intel.com — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:37:01 GMT

With the launch of Intel Centrino with vPro technology - several medium to large customers (with 1000 or more PCs in the infrastructure) have asked for Intel's help with building the financial business case for the new technology. Given this need, Intel asked WiPro to survey senior IT managers from 41 companies about current notebook PC management costs that could potentially be reduced by taking advantage of the new technology. WiPro specifically focused on PC maintenance costs that IT usually budgets for on an annual basis (these are "hard dollar costs", such as help desk calls, help desk visits (especially for hardware and software malfunctions - such as OS blue screens and hard drive failures), auditing, security incidents, software patch deployment costs, major application (such as Office) deployment costs into the infrastructure, etc.).

WiPro's findings are as follows:

Estimated hard dollar savings of up to ~$140 / PC / year with Intel Centrino with vPro technology vs. the mobile PC in the installed PC base today
Reduces the need for hardware-related desk-side visits by as much as 58% and for software-related desk-side visits by as much as 57%
Up to 51% faster patch saturation per incident and reduces number of inventory failures by 62%
Enterprises can take advantage of most of the Intel Centrino with vPro technology features (including remote diagnosis and repair) in the mobile PC form factor for about 16 hours a day (the other 8 hours, on average, the mobile PC is asleep or off-line, and an IT manager cannot use the Intel vPro technology features)

For those interested in the report, please read about it here: http://www.intel.com/business/business-pc/roi/centrinoprowhitepaper.pdf

In order to help customers model the "hard dollar" savings in your environment, Intel has created the Intel Centrino with vPro technology and Intel Core2 with vPro technology ROI Estimator that is based on the data from the above study, as well as another study that focused on desktops with Intel Core2 with vPro technology that was published last year. This ROI Estimator is located here: http://www.intel.com/business/business-pc/roi/demo.htm

To learn more about the ROI Estimator and the desktop and mobile PC studies, please listen to Josh, me and WiPro talk about them in this PodTech videocast: http://www.podtech.net/home/4679/roi-intel-vpro-technology-in-the-enterprise

Cheers -

Justin Van Buren

Intel Business Marketing Manager

Activation Getting Easier - PODCast

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:07:00 GMT

Mike Seawright, Terry Cutler & I came together to discuss Activation.

Here's a quick excerpt: "We have studies that show that on the laptop or notebook side, it saves you $50 per year and on the desktop side it saves you approximately $230 per year by utilizing the vPro technology," says Mike Seawright, of the enterprise solutions sales group. In other words, it's worth it to go all the way through the activation process now, because otherwise, "you're losing out on that cost savings." Terry Cutler, also of the enterprise solutions sales group, says it differently: "I'm more than happy for people to buy the technology, but I think they'd be even better off if they'd actually use the technology."

http://www.podtech.net/home/4710/intel-vpro-technology-activation-getting-easier

If you have a question or would like to have more details please let Mike, Terry or I know..