- 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.
- 43% of SMBs surveyed admitted that they may have experienced PC security and data breaches in the last one year but refrained from reporting the issue.
India, 22 November 2018 – A research released today by Techaisle, commissioned by Microsoft and Intel, revealed that SMBs with a PC or laptop older than four years might be spending approx. 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[1] 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South Korea establishes a direct cost implication for SMBs from loss in productivity and security risks resulting from outdated devices.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, 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,” said 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.
For more information, visit https://blogs.windows.com/.
[1] The Microsoft-Intel Make the Shift study was conducted in August 2018, and involved 2,156 respondents from 5 markets in Asia Pacific (Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea).
- Respondents were IT and business decision makers
- Sample included SMBs across various sizes, which were classified as small (1-99 employees), medium (100-499 employees) and large (500-999 employees)
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 8,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research and development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local datacenters to accelerate digital transformation across Indian start-ups, businesses, and government agencies. In 2016, Microsoft opened one of its eight Cyber Security Engagement Centers in the country, to address security needs of both public and private sectors.
About Intel:
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), a leader in the semiconductor industry, is shaping the data-centric future with computing and communications technology that is the foundation of the world’s innovations. The company’s engineering expertise is helping address the world’s greatest challenges as well as helping secure, power and connect billions of devices and the infrastructure of the smart, connected world – from the cloud to the network to the edge and everything in between. Find more information about Intel at newsroom.intel.com and intel.com.
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