Understanding the Complexity of PC Upgrades

One of the most important roles that IT ops plays is verifying that employees across the organization have access to modern devices. This helps deliver top productivity and the ability to leverage new applications and services. It also ensures the business can stay up to date with security measures and patches. An aging PC simply doesn’t have the performance, flexibility, or ability to guard against the latest threats to make it viable for the business environment. As a result, the PC refresh process is one place where IT ops can deliver outsized value to the organization. But if managed incorrectly, it can also introduce everything you’re working so hard to prevent: lower productivity, higher costs, and increased security risks. In other words, complexity. When sourcing new PCs, one of the critical factors to evaluate is the original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM’s) ability to guarantee build stability over the generation of the device. When IT ops decides to upgrade end-user PCs, it has to test the PC to confirm all its critical business applications work as expected. Once a PC is validated, IT ops can then order more like it in batches as it replaces older PCs across the organization. However, if the OEM can’t guarantee stability in terms of components and software across the generation of devices, the PC you buy for Employee A might not be the same one you buy for Employee Z. Let’s evaluate the challenges this lack of a stability guarantee can generate.