Four new PCs can be purchased for the money that requires to maintain one 4-year-old PC: Microsoft-Intel study

A recent research powered by Techaisle commissioned by Microsoft and Intel uncovers that the cost of upkeeping a PC older than four years can be used to purchase at least three new Modern PCs. The research released on Nov 22^nd by Techaisle revealed that SMBs with a PC or laptop older than four years might be spending approximately INR 93,500 (US$1,279) per device.

The cost is enough to replace the ageing hardware with three or more new PCs. The study surveyed 2,156 SMBs across India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea establishes a direct cost implication for SMBs from loss in productivity and security risks resulting from outdated devices.

India is home to more than 51 million micro, small & medium enterprises, which have a workforce of over 114 million and contribute over 30% to India’s GDP. Techaisle revealed that despite the cost implications and security risks, 49% of larger SMBs and 31% of small SMBs are still on older PCs.

On the other hand, the study indicates, SMBs who have already embraced a modern workplace strategy have experienced better productivity, reduced costs, and enhanced security.

• 66% of SMBs saw improved efficiency by adopting newer PCs that enabled them with new experiences powered by cloud and mobility solutions
• 63% of SMBs felt that they were able to better secure and protect their data on newer PCs
• 58% of SMBs found that adopting newer PCs reduced overall maintenance costs
• 41% of SMBs agreed that newer PCs made their employees more productive

“PCs are the productive engines for most SMBs in India, where organizations rely heavily on their devices for their day-to-day tasks. However, 3 in 10 SMBs in India surveyed have PCs that are older than four years, which significantly increases maintenance costs. Microsoft is invested in extending a secured and productive computing experience to SMBs across sizes and geographies of India, enabling them with a modern workplace,” commented  Priyadarshi Mohapatra, Country General Manager - Consumer & Devices Sales, Microsoft India.

Priyadarshi Mohapatra added, “With Windows 10, we are continuously working towards empowering these businesses and their employees with a platform that ensures best ever mobility and support to business applications. We are also continuously working with our OEM partner ecosystem for PCs and laptops across price points that offers SMBs relevant options depending on their size and requirements.”

Increased security and reliability with a modern device

The new study revealed that in the last year alone, as high as 43% of SMBs experienced PC security and data theft breaches, with only 12% of them actually reporting these attacks.

Addressing business priorities with a modern device approach

“SMB’s constitute 95% of enterprises in India, and employ almost half of the workforce in the country, yet many of them still have PC’s that are more than four years old. Computers and connectivity have opened the gateway for digitization and automation of SMB’s, increasing returns, scale and output. It is vital for these businesses to invest in upgrading their processing power by deploying PC’s that can support complex tasks and enable expansion. We believe that by having them move to a modern PC powered by an Intel® Core™ processor, they can unlock greater productivity for their business while reducing IT management time and costs,” said Prakash Mallya, Managing Director – Sales & Marketing, Intel India.

Respondents in the study identified their top business priorities as increasing business growth, business productivity and profitability. The study highlighted that SMBs are looking at IT as a response to address their business issues. The top IT priorities included investing in mobility as well as cloud solutions and managed services.

“We found that the key barriers in migrating to a newer device were concerns of legacy applications not being able to work on a newer operating system, along with the lack of budgets. However, the benefits of adopting a modern device strategy outweighs the concerns. Too often, SMB owners focus on short term costs and while in most cases this approach is absolutely valid, at times it can lead to situations that cost them more. The choice between maintaining older PCs and replacing them with newer PCs is one such area. However, these SMBs should re-evaluate their decision given the higher cost of maintaining older PCs which has a larger cumulative effect on the budget than purchasing newer PCs with latest technology. SMBs in the country should seriously consider making the shift to a newer PC in the immediate future,” said Anurag Agrawal, Chief Analyst, Techaisle.

In India, more than 61% of PCs used in SMBs are still on older versions of Windows today, according to the study. Upgrading to a Windows 10 modern device will offer experiences that are more familiar, safe, secure, and productive.