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One of the fundamental ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the business landscape over the past year is by shifting companies’ focus to conserving capital. As a result, businesses have prioritised the deployment of technology-driven solutions to ensure greater productivity and reduce costs.

IT management is among the sectors that offer tremendous scope for such interventions. These solutions enable IT teams to focus on core business innovations — a factor that closely dictates success in today’s landscape — and less on the day-to-day maintenance, cataloguing and tracking of infrastructure.

However, increase in scale and the adoption of remote working practices add make the task more complex, while making it difficult for IT companies to optimise costs. According to a Computing survey which interviewed 150 IT leaders in medium to large organisations across all major sectors of the economy, around 79 percent of the respondents expected remote working to trigger significant device management challenges over the next 12 months.

How Microsoft’s software solutions enable efficient IT management that optimise costs

In a situation where remote working could bring about more unwieldiness to the management and maintenance of IT assets, technology solutions play a big role in bringing about reducing costs and improving the efficiency of operations for SMBs.

According to a McKinsey report, titled ‘A practical way for CIOs to manage IT costs through the COVID-19 crisis’, one company reduced IT costs by 20 percent within six months simply by limiting day-to-day demand for services and applications such as maintenance and shifting from on-site to remote support.

To that end, Windows Autopilot is a collection of technologies used to deploy, configure and manage devices, including mobile phones, and get them ready for productive use.

Administrators can configure user profiles to streamline the setup process and the software can be automatically installed on new devices. Windows Autopilot can also be used to reset, repurpose, and recover devices. This solution enables an IT department to:

• reduce the time IT teams spend on deploying, managing, and retiring devices
• reduce the infrastructure required to maintain the devices.
• maximise the ease of use for all types of end users

Flipside of the same coin: Cost benefits of the latest devices powered by Windows 10 and Intel  vPro® technology

When it comes to upgrading devices, SMBs often shy away over concerns about prohibitive costs. As a result, the refreshment cycles for SMBs get longer. According to a Techaisle report titled, ‘New Windows 10 PCs are a strategic investment in productivity and security for SMBs in the modern world of work’, SMBs replace their PCs every 3.7 years on an average. And many businesses update their software at the same time as their hardware, meaning this too may often be out of date.

However, there are many hidden costs associated with using outdated devices. The report also noted that compared to newer PCs, older computers were:

• More than three times more likely to have app and system crashes

• Three times more likely to experience a virus or malware infection

• Over four times more likely to have poor mobile network connectivity

compared to newer devices

• Need to be repaired more than four times in the past year

• Cost around three times more to run

• Led to almost four times more productivity loss

In contrast, SMBs reported significantly better performance on new Windows 10 PCs with Intel  vPro® technology than those that were more than four years old.

The report noted, “It is a fact that the cost [of running old PCs] either equals or exceeds the purchase price of the latest version of Windows 10 PCs. Replacing, rather than repairing and maintaining, reduces the cost of operations and frees up budgets.”

Thus, modern Windows 10 devices with Intel  vPro® technology that can help achieve an efficient, optimised and secure way of managing IT infrastructure that avoids costly downtime, while enabling long-term savings.