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Commercial goods transportation proliferated in the 1980s, accelerating the need for fleet management. Amid rising costs, logistical complexity and government regulations, truck operators sought to better manage vehicle maintenance and fuel consumption.
In the 1990s, advancements in telematics and fleet management software was a boon for logistics, enabling truck company managers to automate tasks, track performance, optimize routes and anticipate operational patterns.
It may seem counterintuitive, but PC management can borrow more than a few lessons from the tried-and-true fleet management model. Turns out organizations face many of the same challenges managing their PC fleets, such as maintaining, upgrading and tracking the performance of existing machines.
Just as truck operators can’t afford to see their vehicles sidelined, corporate employees can’t bear downtime for their PCs. After all, information is currency in the digital age and employees can’t get much done without it.
Unfortunately, between run-the-business projects, employee workstream requirements and other tasks, IT has a lot of work to do and scarcely enough time to do it. If IT can offload tasks such as PC management it can focus its resources on other pressing business priorities.
PCaaS Fuels the Digital Age
That’s where PC-as-a-Service (PCaaS) comes in.
In traditional PC purchasing, organizations pony up significant cash for devices upfront. IT then allocates staff to manage the PCs’ lifecycles, including installing software, patching security vulnerabilities and supporting end users. Some organizations struggle to keep atop this time-consuming process, which results in outdated machines that get slower with every major software upgrade.
PCaaS helps organizations offload their PC management responsibilities, which helps them keep their PCs current without busting their IT budgets.
Denmark’s AVK Holding, which produces valves, hydrants and accessories for water and gas distribution embraced the approach. Facing a three-year upgrade cycle, the company was poised to refresh thousands of PCs, which would result in hefty upfront costs.
Yet the organization’s 4,800 workers are distributed across multiple locations and require remote support and maintenance. The company opted for PCaaS, enabling them to subscribe to and pay for a monthly service that keeps their PCs current without the pain of capital outlays upfront.
This affords AVK the flexibility to scale its PC fleet up or down as needed. Moreover, factory provisioning saves AVK considerable time, as the PCs and laptops are ready with operating systems and anti-virus software right out of the box, freeing up IT staff to focus on other business tasks.
Like AVK, Burbank Group also needed a simpler solution for its PC management processes.
The Australian building services conglomerate kept PCs as long as five to six years before investing in new devices, which caused performance and reliability issues due to software upgrades that challenged the machines.
With PCaaS, improved its employee experience, simplified device management and optimized its IT spend. Burbank also cultivated a regular refresh cadence, ensuring that staff had current PCs while hewing to a fixed monthly fee per user.
The Common Denominator Fueling PCaaS
What do AVK and Burbank have in common? Both are using Dell APEX PC-as-a-Service (APaaS) and complimentary services to modernize their PC management operations and improve their employee experience.
AVK combines Dell APCaaS with Dell ProDeploy to reduce PC setup time from two to three days to as little as 25 minutes per device. AVK also utilizes predictive insights from Dell ProSupport Plus to remediate IT support issues remotely.
Meanwhile Burbank found that APCaaS reduced IT support tickets requesting help with PCs by 15 to 20 percent, said Amir Rohani, Burbank Group’s ICT Infrastructure Manager at Burbank Group. This has also freed up time for the IT team to focus on core projects such as bolstering network security, Rohani said.
“The speed of Dell Technologies device delivery supported our work-from-home strategy,” Burbank’s Rohani said. “Plus, with the latest devices, we know the machines are running at peak performance with strong device security.”
Dell APCaaS helps reduce overall PC lifecycle costs by 30%, according to research from Forrester Consulting commissioned by Dell Technologies. 1 IT can also decrease the time it takes to onboard new employees by as much as 50%, the Forrester report found.
Ultimately, fleet management and APCaaS have more in common than you might think at first blush.
Both practices allow companies to focus on their core business activities while outsourcing the management of their vehicles or devices to a third-party expert. This ensures high-quality and timely service so that organizations can focus on equipping employees to better serve customers.
Elevating employee productivity is a key action item for any IT leader. What are you doing to support your organization’s workforce?
Learn more about Dell APEX PCaaS.
1 The Total Economic Impact™ Of Dell PC As A Service, Forrester Consulting, Nov. 2022.