4 Trends Shaping PC Purchase Decisions Today
A PC that allows employees to do everything they need to, regardless of their location, is the need of the hour.
When you evaluate the considerations that go into the purchase decision process for organizational laptops, it often starts with performance — 70% of IT decision-makers blame poor PC performance for low employee productivity.
Fleet management is a major issue today. The pandemic proved a huge disruptor that redefined a workspace. Another elephant in the room is security because every PC is a potential target for malicious threat actors that are seemingly everywhere. Then there are extraneous concerns that mean a lot to workers today, such as issues of sustainability, energy efficiency, data privacy, and style.
Let’s review the trends that shape PC purchase decisions today.
2023 Trends Influencing PC Purchases
Choosing a laptop was a straightforward process at one time. IT professionals referred to a spec sheet outlining the machine’s memory, storage capacity and processing power, while users were drawn to sleek designs. However, IT is a different world now, with different work patterns and macro trends. To fulfill its purpose and endure over time, a laptop must meet the criteria of these current and future trends.
1. Hybrid work is here to stay
It’s already a year past the pandemic, but hybrid work is here to stay. Yes, 100% remote work is probably ending its lifecycle for most organizations. But that does not mean everyone is returning to the office to work on a desktop. The hybrid work era is here. It is the compromise that satisfies the concerns of management and the work-life desires of their employees.
A 2022 survey showed that 79% of organizations would have a mix of workers at home and in the office. To make hybrid a reality, 85% of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) agree that purchasing a PC that allows employees to do everything they need to, regardless of location, is required. The question, of course, is how internal IT supports these geographically dispersed devices.
2. No more bolt-on security
There is no doubt we need to take security seriously. That means it’s time to abandon bolt-on security practices and software endpoint protection that offer little protection against zero-day attacks. It is time to demand that security be integrated into the hardware itself.
As per an Intel study, 84% of IT leaders agreed that effective hardware-led security would support a broader security approach to their organization. Today’s PCs must be built with security in mind from the ground up, as the cost of threat remediation is spiraling out of control.
3. Sustainability
We have all heard those three letters: ESG. Environmental, social, and governance concerns are becoming increasingly important today. Sustainability is a top goal for most surveyed decision-makers today, as 64% of ITDMs cited the expansion of their sustainability initiatives to address ESG goals as a critical or high priority.
In the same study, 40% of ITDMs said candidates having sustainability-focused values directly impact their device-purchasing decisions. Energy consumption involves more than just battery performance. It also includes capabilities like waking PCs and applying patching remotely to both conserve and optimize power. It is one more contributing factor to the long-term sustainability of our planet.
4. The market for talent is competitive
Retention is the new competitive advantage. Employee retention increases productivity, reduces turnover and training costs, and contributes towards a positive company culture and reputation that can enhance brand image and attract higher talent. One way to improve retention is to ensure employees have the proper tools to do their job. That includes a high-performance and reliable PC, according to 20% of ITDMs.
Today, high-performance users need devices that can keep up with them. Their on-the-go machines need to support both modernized and legacy applications and retain the same performance levels when not plugged in because work can take place just about anywhere today. That also requires a long-lasting battery life to put in a full day of work that includes multiple app utilization, data crunching, and video conferencing.
Introducing Intel vPro®
So, how do you find a PC that will meet the rigors of modern business and influential trends? It may sound simplified, but the truth usually is. Intel, in conjunction with its industry partners, has dedicated immense resources and attention to designing a platform to support a laptop purposely built for business. It is the latest extension of a 16-year legacy.
Imagine the capability to remotely access your entire fleet of corporate PCs regardless of work location, even if they don’t boot. No longer does the firewall perimeter define the management and maintenance area for your endpoint devices. Let’s look at what distinguishes Intel vPro- enabled laptops as today’s preferred modernized work device.
1. Overall platform
It is beyond impressive what goes into the design and creation of a new Intel vPro platform. For Intel, that is achieved by a rigorous validation process that incorporates the help of their ecosystem partners. Like its predecessors, the 13th generation of the vPro platform has undergone thousands of tests and feedback loops to certify its standards.
With over 16 years of development and hundreds of industry partnerships, you would be hard-pressed to find a more reliable solution out there. Its combination of hardware and software technologies helps enhance the manageability, security, and performance of your PC fleet. It integrates into a wide range of network management tools, security software and cloud-based management platforms, making it possible to deploy and manage wherever work might happen to be taking place at the time.
2. Performance
You are probably familiar with the high-performance reputation and processing power of Intel processors, but did you know that devices with Intel vPro and 13th Gen Intel® Core™ processors have an estimated 70% attack surface reduction versus 4-year-old devices?
Performance isn’t just about processing power, though. It is the accumulation of all those lost seconds you experienced on other devices in the past. It is about ensuring that updates and patching take place during non-work hours and that workflows aren’t disrupted by malware and malicious code.
3. Security
Intel security starts with a secure supply chain and the Intel Trusted Device Setup. The Intel® Hardware Shield, exclusive to the Intel vPro platform, is ready to start protecting you from the first time you power it up.
The Intel Hardware Shield means that your OS boots securely in an unhampered state, and your memory is locked in the BIOS to prevent malware from compromising the OS. In addition to Intel vPro’s hardware-rooted features, such as advanced threat protection, secure enclave and firmware reliance, its security extends into virtual environments with its hardware-accelerated virtualization and encryption.
4. Manageability
Price represents the minimum cost of something. Often, the “price” of something is just a starting point. It’s the total cost of ownership in the end that really counts. For enterprise laptops, that includes support and management costs. In a recent survey, 74% of ITDMs found that PC management costs were reduced with Intel vPro.
Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) ensures persistent out-of-band connectivity to your hybrid laptops so that internal support personnel can do everything from repairing corrupted drivers to reinstalling an OS on a non-responsive system. That’s because Intel vPro’s out-of-band connectivity operates independently of the OS. This means a remote user doesn’t have to panic when their business-critical device fails to boot up because a remote tech can easily repair it as if it’s on the local workbench.
Takeaway
Businesses are striving for greater agility to succeed in today’s fast-changing business climate. Achieving that agility begins with ensuring users have adaptive tools designed for a dynamic yet insecure world. That is what the Intel vPro is all about.
With Intel vPro, your hybrid workforce can operate freely and productively while being self-assured that their devices are secure from the inside out and fully supported regardless of location.
Learn more about Intel vPro® here.
Image Source: Intel
