Mac use enables greater productivity, employee satisfaction at IBM

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FineWine

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#260150 13-Nov-2019 10:50

Interest article about user productivity, satisfaction and required service's of Apple products, (mainly mac's) versus PC's at IBM today. Of course IBM does not make PC's anymore.

Mac use enables greater productivity, employee satisfaction at IBM

Don Estridge, led development of the original IBM Personal Computer (PC), and thus is known as "father of the IBM PC".

He must be rolling in his grave by now.

"Apple's 1981 Ad "Welcome, IBM. Seriously." is quite prophetic, NOW.

I have pasted it here so you don't have to wade your way through all the ad's on the original site:

Mac use enables greater productivity, employee satisfaction at IBM
November 12, 2019/ Ruby Edwards

Today at the 2019 Jamf Nation User Conference (JNUC), IBM announced research showing its employees who use Mac are more likely to stay with IBM and exceed performance expectations compared to PC users. Since announcing its Mac@IBM program in 2015, IBM now has over 290,000 Apple devices within its organization.

In 2015, IBM first appeared on stage at JNUC in 2015 to announce its Mac@IBM program. IBM was deploying 1,900 Mac devices per week, all supported by 24 help desk staff members. At the time, that equated to one staff member supporting 5,400 Mac users, compared to one support staff member supporting 242 PC users. IBM also found that only 5% of Mac users called the help desk for assistance, compared to 40% of PC users.

In 2016, Fletcher Previn, CIO at IBM, came back on the JNUC stage to give an update on IBM’s deployment. With over 90,000 Mac deployed by 2016, Previn demonstrated how IBM saves anywhere from $273-$543 per Mac compared to a PC, over a four-year span.

In 2018, Previn announced IBM now managed more than 277,000 Apple devices, all supported by 78 staff members. Previn also announced that IBM open-sourced its provisioning process to assist the Mac community in delivering the same new-hire experience as it does with its Mac@IBM program.

This year, Previn announced first-of-its-kind research that shows how Mac enables IBM employees to be more productive, along with improving employee satisfaction and retention. He said there are 22% more macOS users who exceeded expectations in performance reviews, compared to Windows users. Also, high value sales deals tend to be 16% larger for macOS users, compared to Windows users.

Previn says that macOS users are 17% less likely to leave IBM, compared to those who use Windows. MacOS users are also happier with the third-party software availability within IBM. Only 5% of macOS users ask for additional software, compared to 11% of Windows users.

Previn also announced research on how macOS users and devices require less support, as seven engineers support 200,000 macOS devices versus 20 engineers required to support 200,000 Windows devices. That’s a 186% increase in support engineering needed for Windows devices. Migration is also easier for IBM workers using Mac, as nearly 98% of macOS users report that the migration was simple, compared to 86% migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

“The state of IT is a daily reflection of what IBM thinks and feels about its employees,” said Fletcher Previn, CIO, IBM. “I’ve said it before – when did it become OK to live like the Jetsons at home but the Flintstones at work? We aim to create a productive environment for IBMers and continuously improve their work experience, and that’s why we introduced our employee-choice program to IBM employees in 2015.”

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

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#2352712 13-Nov-2019 11:23

Don't tell my employer, they might start expecting more from me because I use a Mac 😂

Benjip

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#2352716 13-Nov-2019 11:29

Awesome news for Apple, and probably something that most Mac users could've told you themselves!

I wonder if they also took into account the tight integration of the iOS ecosystem for Contacts/Calendars/Reminders etc. (although I'm sure IBM would have their own services for those).

gehenna

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#2352718 13-Nov-2019 11:34

I used to feel this way, but I've been far happier in the Surface world over the past 12 months. I'm bored by MacOS having used Mac's exclusively since around 2004, but might end up there again if it looks compelling enough.

BlinkyBill

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#2352725 13-Nov-2019 11:55

gehenna:

I used to feel this way, but I've been far happier in the Surface world over the past 12 months. I'm bored by MacOS having used Mac's exclusively since around 2004, but might end up there again if it looks compelling enough.

well, for IBM it’s about the cost of maintenance. 277k of machines to maintain adds up very quickly. In the workplace, it’s about productivity of outputs - downtime applying forced patching, anti-virus etc etc all affects productivity.

IBM probably put ‘bored by the OS’ a very long way down the list of requirements for selecting one OS over another.

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#2352727 13-Nov-2019 11:58

Clearly I'm posting from a personal perspective, not a corporate one, and they are specifically calling out "employee satisfaction" as a metric.

DarthKermit

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#2352734 13-Nov-2019 12:16

I've never really used a Mac. Back at high school they had Apple 2s I think.

I certainly have no great love for Windows and Microsoft, but they are what I've been used to for decades.

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lxsw20

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#2352735 13-Nov-2019 12:24

Funny this comes out right on jamf nation user conference.... they do like to get Fletcher Previn from IBM out most years to give a talk on Mac in the work place.

Macs certainly aren't right for a lot of work places. But with a decent MDM they are quite easy to look after. I manage about 80 or so Macs at work with jamf Pro.

alasta

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#2352738 13-Nov-2019 12:30

I'm amazed it's taken this long for large employers to figure out that issuing complicated technology to non-technical employees is terrible for productivity.

As someone who doesn't work in an IT role I lose huge amounts of time out of my day as a result of the erratic behaviour of my Windows PC. Yes, I accept that some of my problems are a likely result of me "doing it wrong", but it takes up so much time to constantly ring up the helpdesk and ask them how to do it right.

Corporate IT departments seriously need to become more user centric in their strategy and procurement.

BlinkyBill

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#2352740 13-Nov-2019 12:41

In my business I am cognisant of the costs of productivity and also maintenance of IT equipment. I also strive to be a preferred employer.

i have a policy - I supply a Mac laptop and maintain it, OR you can use your own laptop and maintain it at your own cost, your choice.

out of my 100 staff, 100 use the Mac.

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#2352746 13-Nov-2019 12:54

I wonder how much of that is a selection effect of who is using a Mac? e.g do you have to put your hand up and say I want a Mac not a Windows PC? Leading to the only some of the more technically savvy users requesting one vs the ones who don't know the difference between Windows 7, XP and MacOS just getting a Windows PC? Is it across all roles or do some roles have PC only software?

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#2352857 13-Nov-2019 17:43

BlinkyBill:

In my business I am cognisant of the costs of productivity and also maintenance of IT equipment. I also strive to be a preferred employer.

i have a policy - I supply a Mac laptop and maintain it, OR you can use your own laptop and maintain it at your own cost, your choice.

out of my 100 staff, 100 use the Mac.

Yeah it's a pita to use a personal machine with no compensation or having to take work product home with them so I would use the Mac too..

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BlinkyBill

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#2352860 13-Nov-2019 18:00

As the owner of a private business I can’t afford to maintain more than one technology. If I offered a larger choice, the costs would have to come from my largest expense, which is remuneration. Or I guess I could take it out of my own remuneration.

In fact, the policy was determined collaboratively about 10 years ago when I had about 50 employees. The staff are all happy with better remuneration and standardisation on Apple.

I wonder, Ioceff13, where you think the costs of remuneration and tools come from?

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#2353031 13-Nov-2019 23:34

As the proud owner of a shiny grey iMac Pro on my desk, I have to agree!

On the few occasions that I have been forced to engage with Windows machines over the 12+ years since I switched, I have hated every minute of it and spent most of the time trying to figure out how to make it do things that are straightforward on Macs. Windows won't even open RAW files for example. You have to go through a program like Lightroom. Mac opens them on the desk through OSX. Just one tiny example.

Also the GUI on Macs is so much nicer. I had a Surface for a while (mistake - never again) and I found that although the 'home' page of Windows looked actually quite modern (at last) as soon as I did something like go into File Explorer, I got a window that looked more or less exactly like it did on Windows in 1997. It could have looked so much clearer, more stylish, more modern.

I have strayed from the Path of Righteousness by using Android phones for some years but even that will soon be coming to an end due to difficulties communicating with family when I cannot use FaceTime or iMessage away from my desk but they all do. I actually prefer Android phones really - I don't like the "all the icons are here" look of iPhones, but eventually you give in.

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#2353213 14-Nov-2019 12:45

BlinkyBill:

As the owner of a private business I can’t afford to maintain more than one technology. If I offered a larger choice, the costs would have to come from my largest expense, which is remuneration. Or I guess I could take it out of my own remuneration.

In fact, the policy was determined collaboratively about 10 years ago when I had about 50 employees. The staff are all happy with better remuneration and standardisation on Apple.

I wonder, Ioceff13, where you think the costs of remuneration and tools come from?

I don't think Ioceff13 was arguing for more choice. I agree with Ioceff13 , I don't want to pay to use my own equipment at work.

Accordingly, if my employer wants me to use Windows, I use Windows. If my employer supplies commmodore64, I'll use that.

They're the one paying the bills, they get to choose how productive I am on their time.

OTOH , as someone who's never used a fruity computer, there would be a non-productive period for me while I got up to speed.

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#2353258 14-Nov-2019 14:49

I've been using Mac at home and Windows at work for the past ~10yrs. If I was to switch to Mac at work it would actually take me quite some time to be as productive even though I'm quite familiar with the Mac interface. I use my work device and my personal devices so differently that I'd have to learn a lot from scratch. For example I don't MS Excel at home but i'm a heavy user of it at work. Excel on a Mac and Wondows PC are quite different, especially when you start getting into custom VBA code and massive dashboards.

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