A technology advancement that is positively impacting businesses on a global scale today is Desktop as a Service (DaaS), and looking at the benefits that such a solution is offering enterprises, DaaS certainly has a place in the African market. This is according to MTN Business, which also believes that DaaS meets some of the biggest concerns that African businesses face today – that of safe, cost effective ICT solutions.

Put simply, DaaS refers to the virtual desktop – a desktop that is hosted in the cloud. The purpose of this model is to provide a full basic desktop environment. This includes the ability to generate or edit word processing documents or spreadsheets, available to all users at the flick of a switch.

It has been suggested that in Africa, there are only three computers for every 1000 people – but what if this could change? MTN Business believes that it can and with this, the possibility for DaaS for African businesses becomes viable.

Says Johnny Aucamp, general manager for Strategic Relations and Business Development Africa at MTN Business: “Considering the low PC stats per user in Africa, such a technology model can be considered perfect for businesses operating in this region. Traditional desktop PCs today remain an expensive capital outlay for businesses, especially from a services point of view. In fact, according to a study undertaken by Gartner, on average, companies spend up to $7000 per PC per year on operating costs, where 77% of this is on service and support alone. With DaaS these costs concerns can be significantly reduced without business growth being affected.”

Furthermore, DaaS also allows employees to have access to work documents via other mobile devices, providing convenience and strategically aligning with the current mobile trend that Africa will continue to experience.

To explain this further, MTN Business provides the example of a 24 hour call centre. Currently, every employee that works in the call centre, regardless of their different shifts, requires a PC to be able to access their work and get the job done. This means that if there are 100 employees, 100 PCs are required. However, out of these 100 employees, let’s say 70 work the day shift – that means that 30 computers are not being used during the day. With DaaS, the 24 hour call centre would only need 70 PCs, as DaaS allows those employees who work the night shift to access their work from any PC in the office. In essence, the call centre would not need 30 computers, which can be a large cost saving.