Although to veteran Mac users this will sound like a report from the Obvious Department, an IBM senior executive
has revealed that Apple products -- both Macs and iOS devices -- are proving popular with IBM employees under a new
employee-choice program, and that users of Apple products need much less help and service, are more productive, and while the up-front cost of Macs are higher than some competing platforms, "every Mac that we buy is making -- and saving -- IBM money."
IBM, which was Apple's chief rival in the late 1970s and early 80s and lent its credibility to the alternative MS-DOS operating system, thus ensuring Microsoft's eventual dominance of personal computing for decades, entered into
a partnership with Apple late last year to coordinate enterprise services and software for the iOS and Mac platforms, the former of which is wildly popular in business circles and the latter of which is seeing growing acceptance as employees, given a choice, often prefer it.
Previn shows Mac advantages at JAMP conference
No better example of this can be found than within IBM itself: as a result of the partnership, IBM began allowing employees the option of having Macs rather than Windows-based PCs for their workstations, and were already widely deploying iOS devices. Back in June, CIO Jeff Smith speculated that IBM might end up buying 150,000 to 200,000 Macs for its employees (out of 400,000 workers total). Roughly four months later, the company already has iOS or Macs (or both) in the hands of 130,000 of its employees, is deploying 1,900 Macs to employees each week, and expects to hit its original goal of having 50,000 Macs in place by the end of the year.
The savings IBM Vice President of Workplace-as-a-Service Fletcher Previn referred to in his remarks come from lower cost of maintenance, lower cost of training, and less time spent setting up and getting productive with the devices. He noted that of the employees with Macs, just five percent call upon IBM's internal helpdesk system -- compared to 40 percent of Windows-based PC users in the company. Speaking to a
JAMF conference of administrators being held in Minneapolis, Previn said that all 130,000 employees with Mac and iOS devices were being assisted by just 24 Apple-oriented helpdesk specialists worldwide.
One attendee at the conference pointed out that Previn's claim works out to one IT specialist for every 5,400 workers. The normal corporate average ratio, Previn noted, was 1:242, and Gartner has previously noted that the ideal average should be 1:70. That difference results in enormous savings in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a device, and improves the Return on Investment (ROI) by boosting employee productivity and reducing downtime.
A combination of Apple's enterprise-level Device Enrollment Program and
JAMF Software's Casper Suite was given some of the credit for allowing IBM employees to quickly set up and starting using the devices with a minimum of assistance. While corporate licensing restrictions and deployments can often be complicated, the setup IBM used allowed employees to simply install software as home users would, with licensing and policy enforcement being handled seamlessly in the background.
IBM's partnership with Apple has not just benefitted the company internally; alongside the launch of more than two dozen specialized and iOS-exclusive apps for various vertical markets and industries, IBM began offering a service that helps large companies incorporate Macs into existing enterprise infrastructure, and offers itself as an example in its mobile deployment and management services.
The two companies are also working on a Student Achievement App for education, which intends to provide teachers with mobile devices with real-time student-data analytics processed through IBM's cloud computing services. That program will be tested with in four schools starting early next year.
Top