Although the personal computer has been declared dead many times, it continues to be the primary way in which work gets done in the modern age. As such, the merging of Dell and EMC is great news for service providers, who can now extend their infrastructure service offerings directly to the desktop.
The way we work has changed drastically in recent years. You could say that work is no longer a location, but an activity. With this in mind, Dell and Intel commissioned the Future Workforce Study to better understand the changing mind frame of its users. Its findings support the idea that 60% of people do at least some work after hours, while two thirds of employees work from home on a regular basis. Once upon a time, technology was considered standard and users took whatever device IT gave them without questioning the quality. This has changed, however, and organizations can no longer afford to have their employees consider the work environment as a place where they must use old technology. The increased capability of users’ personal equipment is driving higher expectations in the workplace. Technology has become a differentiator as well as a job perk. As the Future Workforce study demonstrates, 42% of millennials would quit a job over poor equipment and 82% say cutting-edge hardware and applications influence what job they take. Therefore, talent acquisition and retention are key reasons for organizations to invest in a workplace transformation.
Consumer-Grade IT
The effect of a great working environment goes further than simply attracting and retaining talent. At its recent symposium, Gartner again emphasized ‘digital dexterity’ as one of the conditions of digital transformation. While this phenomenon extends far beyond an organization’s adopting the latest in-house technology, offering the best possible resources to employees certainly helps in getting the best out of office workers. According to Gartner, IT must deliver a consumer-like computer experience to help people become more agile and better equipped to cope with the changes their organization is going through. Employees using excellent hardware and user-friendly applications will be more inclined to turn to technology and its possibilities to add value to the business. If people are digitally empowered, they will help speed the digital transformation.
Another engaging reason to provide users with state-of-the-art computer gear is the security aspect: studies reveal that 95% of security breaches originate at an endpoint, where a lot of corporate data is stored. Securing desktops and laptops is an important step in developing a strong security posture.
Digital Dexterity as a Service
This is great news for service providers who work with Dell. Now that Dell and EMC have combined, our alliance partners can offer a complete bundle of products. It is comforting for corporate buyers to know that a single source can provide a broad range of hardware, software and services. Having one contract to cover the complete infrastructure, from the workstation to the datacenter and then to the cloud, ensures that there will be no finger-pointing between vendors.
Dell has been a leader in the PC market for years, boasting an award-winning portfolio designed for productivity and unparalleled security while helping to enable people with the latest devices and the best endpoint security. This has led to 17 consecutive quarters of Commercial PC market share gains, according to IDC. What’s more, the end-to-end solutions for the entire PC lifecycle can streamline and reduce IT’s workload, while lowering costs by 25%. Dell has recently expanded PC as a Service (PCaaS), allowing flexible consumption models to give customers yet another option for how they procure their IT.
The renewed importance upon up-to-date in-house equipment offers a great opportunity for service providers to refresh their offerings for Workplace as a Service, Client Managed Services and other managed solutions. Adding these new resources to their existing portfolio will give them a fresh way to approach prospective clients and claim a bigger share of wallet with their existing customers.
