By Chris Buchanan, Client Solutions Director, Dell Technologies South Africa

In the light of current economic conditions and tight IT budgets, organisations are moving towards leveraging flexible and as-a-service models. With this approach, they can optimally time the refresh cycles of their PCs, ensuring their employees have the latest devices and maintaining high levels of productivity. 

With a Dell APEX PC-as-a-Service (PCaaS) model, companies can continue to innovate and deploy the latest technology – be it devices, software or services – with established costs and on flexible terms catered to their needs. 

The as-a-service model shifts the purchase of devices for employees from a one-time fixed cost to a continuous expenditure and can improve the digital employee experience while offering budget, hiring and project flexibility to the organisation. As companies find the model which best suits their requirements, we expect to see this trend continue to grow.

Another contributing factor to the rise of Dell APEX PCaaS is that management of the device lifecycle has become more complex and expensive than ever before, driven by a greater variety of available devices and the global trend towards remote and flexible work. As a result, organisations are compelled to support a wide range of device and technology options to an increasingly dispersed and mobile workforce while maintaining low user disruption, all amid cost uncertainty.

Dell Technologies’ APEX PCaaS solution enables companies to receive the latest Dell PCs and comprehensive management services for a set monthly subscription. It helps organisations boost the productivity of valuable and increasingly scarce employees by reducing the required device lifecycle management tasks as well as hardware costs. 

In fact, a Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact study commissioned by Dell Technologies found that customers using the Dell APEX PCaaS offering reduced their lifecycle support costs by 30% and were able to refresh their PCs 18 months sooner.

Another advantage of Dell APEX PCaaS is that users are enabled with the latest devices, further improving productivity thanks to reduced downtime and better performing applications. Dell APEX PCaaS customers also benefit from budget and project flexibility, which enables better support for an increasingly hybrid workforce.

In the Forrester study, participants highlighted the cost savings their organisations achieved by moving valuable IT talent off device lifecycle management tasks and onto high-impact IT projects, avoiding labour and hiring costs. Organisations also reported hardware savings, shipping expenditure savings and user impact.

Key findings of the report, which quantified benefits using a three-year risk-adjusted present value, include:

·       Avoided device lifecycle support cost of more than 30% by eliminating personnel support and management effort for the device lifecycle.

·       Avoided device acquisition and refresh costs of 4% while reducing vendor management costs and refreshing devices more frequently. 

·       Avoided user productivity losses caused by device downtime to three days per incident through flexible repair or replacement options for devices that experience issues.

·       Reduced shipping costs by 50% by receiving devices directly from Dell, reducing one-way shipping costs at both ends of the device lifecycle. In addition, the newer device fleet drives down off-cycle shipping costs that are often expensive, expedited options.

Additional benefits include improved security due to device consistency, less impact on cash flow with a monthly payment model versus upfront capital expenditure as well as faster supply of more up-to-date devices and quicker support resolution.

From an overall perspective, employees who are empowered with the right tools are more likely to feel satisfied in their jobs, leading to better staff retention. This is also true for employees who complete fewer support tickets relating to PCs that need repairs – and a Dell APEX PCaaS subscription can reduce device-related support tickets by an average of 25% to 40%.  Less user frustration makes your IT team’s job much easier and allows them to focus on more fulfilling tasks that contribute to business growth. 

Dell APEX PCaaS offers unparalleled flexibility, scalability, convenience and cost savings. By unlocking the advantages and benefits of Dell APEX PCaas, you can revolutionise how your business operates and ensure its future success in an ever-evolving digital world.