Analysts continue to offer bearish outlooks for the immediate future of the PC industry. But that doesn’t mean computer sales are dead – far from it.
Over the past year transformational end-customers have refreshed their IT infrastructure in preparation for digital business models.
Admittedly, the macro numbers aren’t great. In March, IDC’s unit sales tracker found worldwide PC sales fell 6.7 percent to 68.5 million units compared with the same time a year before – the lowest first-quarter volume since 2009.
IDC now expects worldwide sales to fall 4.9 percent this year, a greater drop than the 3.3 percent it had originally predicted. On value, US$201 billion of PCs were sold globally last year.
Gartner posted similar numbers for the period, estimating PC shipments fell 5.2 percent to 71.7 million units.
Things aren’t so bad in Asia-Pacific, where Gartner found PC shipments declined 1.2 percent from the quarter a year ago, passing 24.3 million units. But mobile PCs
grew 3.7 percent, suggesting organisations are transforming how they do business.
PC sales last year were supported by the end of Windows XP support, but with Windows 10 held out until the end of the year, organisations on Windows 7 or Windows 8 are sitting tight. IDC expects 293.1 million PCs to be sold this year.
“Fortunately for PC makers, tablet growth has slowed,” says IDC senior research analyst of worldwide PC trackers Jay Chou.
“The PC ecosystem has also begun to see some fruits from efforts to narrow the divide between the PC and mobile devices in terms of both user experience and price points. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done as advances in both hardware and software are expected to benefit an ever wider spectrum of form factors, such as 2-in-1 devices that will further siphon volume from notebooks.”
The news has flowed back to microprocessor maker, Intel, which in March cut its quarterly revenue outlook almost US$1 billion, down to US$12.8 billion.
Despite the subdued forecasts, there are still plenty of opportunities for computer resellers to upgrade customers to new forms of computing that will prepare them for new digital business models.
The following projects, all three sold through the channel, have transformed the customers – a healthcare provider, a regional council and the National Library of Australia – by cutting waste, better serving customers and citizens and fostering innovation.
Next: Case study #1 - National Library of Australia
CASE STUDY ONE: National Library of Australia
Public area desktop refresh
When the National Library of Australia set out to transform information access in its public areas, it turned to HP to furnish the latest all-in-one (AiO) technology that appeals to sophisticated knowledge-seekers.
It was an “unusual” buy for an agency, says Michael Thompson, who led the sale for Canberra reseller, Ethan Group.
“A lot of agencies keep their monitors twice as long as their PCs – three years on a PC – so an all-in-one doesn’t work,” Thompson says. “Government almost entirely buys standard desktop and standard monitors.
“An AiO is also not easy to repair on-site. If you have a department with secure data on the hard drive, they can’t let it out of their office. The AiO is unique for government; this is one of our only accounts.”
But user experience and maintenance considerations swayed Australia’s premier library to break the mould. The PCs complement changes to the library’s layout to make it more friendly and useful for STEM (science, technology, education and maths) subjects and for children, Thompson says.
“It is aesthetics and also fewer things on the desk they have to worry about being damaged. They went with a fairly top-of-the-line device they’ll keep for
4-5 years with [an extended] warranty.”
The deployment started last July with a public test of the AiOs and proceeded to rolling out 140 HP 800G1 all-in-one computers early this year. They supplement 1,000 traditional PCs that Ethan Group provided the business two
years ago.
Thompson says the library investigated thin clients but between the “belting” that public users hand out and the need for devices such as barcode readers, the lighter desktops couldn’t keep up.
“It was so much effort to get it working, it was easier to lock down an image on a PC and if it gets stuffed up, just refresh it.”
Ethan managed the rollout, working with library IT staff. Twenty AiOs were installed at a time (“they don’t have big loading docks”) under the direction of an Ethan engineer who added asset management and height-adjustable stands, ensuring the standard operating environment was running OK.
Ethan bundled waste such as packing, and disposed of it environmentally, while replaced PCs were donated to schools under library policy.
“People say resellers add no value but if you went direct, the manufacturer couldn’t have done this. It took a reseller to assist with project and store the product for weeks.”
Fact file
Device HP 800G1 AiO 2023 (i7 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD), 4 years onsite warranty,
23-inch screen. Optional height-adjustable swivel stand. Number deployed 150-180
Number deployed 140 units in public areas
Distributor Dicker Data
Value of deal ~$300,000 (bought with
on-site warranty)
Account Existing client (HP)
Technology replaced HP small
form-factor desktops
Business case Public access to
information, catalogs, internet access
Challenges Access and deployment
(20 PCs deployed a week for 7 weeks)
Timeline
July 2014: Test and try out AiOs
Oct: First quotes
Nov: Purchase orders sent
Dec-Mar: Installation (ongoing)
Next: Wellington Shire Council
CASE STUDY TWO: Wellington Shire Council
Information transformation
When Phillip Phillipou joined Wellington Shire Council in Victoria 18 months ago, the manager for information services was confronted by a creaking IT infrastructure.
“We were dealing with some systems that were up to 15 years old,” Phillipou says. “We had Windows XP so we were dealing with legacy applications and inefficiencies of incompatible system IT workarounds, and IT staff being called in for basic tasks, and this was a massive cost for the organisation.”
The escalating running costs and lost opportunities convinced the council to invest about $500,000 in IT as part of a larger program of works, Phillipou says.
“[Council] were stuck in a rut in terms of business processes and the limitations of the old technology so we couldn’t move forwards. Our users were so frustrated at the technology environment they brought in their own solutions, and that posed its own business risk; that was a main driver for change.”
Before Phillipou could go to market, he had to make the case for digital model transformation. “The business case was a five-year model around maintenance and support of an outdated ICT environment versus expenditure to deliver new technologies and savings from efficiencies. Costs are reduced and council has achieved fantastic value for the ratepayer.”
He then rigorously tested the market, insisting on terms such as same-day turnaround on device repairs before alighting on Lenovo Helix convertible two-in-ones from Melbourne reseller Learning With Technology. The Helix range is more tablet than laptop, given that the default keyboard is unpowered with limited connectivity and essentially acts as a base for typing.
Along with a broader ICT agenda that boosted connectivity throughout the 11,000km2 local government area east of the state, the transformation has lived up to its promise.
It is supported by Microsoft One Note and Skype for Business that also provides teleconferencing, Phillipou says, replacing phone handsets with Jabra headsets.
Now the business collaborates openly with other organisations and ratepayers and has integrated internal systems such as in finance. Server silos were consolidated and wi-fi is now ubiquitous in many council areas. The wired network is up to 20Gbps, connecting council offices to a disaster recovery site and a new data centre that provides private cloud services.
A 100Mbps to 500Mbps microwave link now connects regional offices and 802.1x covers the last few metres. “Previous to that we had a very limited wi-fi; it might have been one access point with a pre-shared key so we had all sorts of security problems.”
Elsewhere, 4G mobile fills in gaps in the network. Council also partnered with Aussie Broadband ISP to provide a wireless mesh network across council.
“The transformation has been phenomenal to go from that environment [of old PCs and limited connectivity] to a mobile, flexible workplace,” says Phillipou.
Fact file
Device Lenovo Helix
Number deployed 150-180
Suppliers Working With Technology, Perfekt, Icomm, APC by Schneider Electric, Lenovo, Aussie Broadband
Value of deal ~$500,000
Other technology solutions deployed Microwave data upgrade, new private cloud data centre, wireless mesh network, collaboration applications such as Skype for Business and paperless meetings using Microsoft One Note, replaced Windows Server 2003 with Windows Server 2012R2 and Windows XP replaced by Windows 8.1; Toshiba Eco copiers
Client status Council led a consortium of suppliers
Technology replaced HP Celeron PCs, running Windows XP (some up to 15 years old); old networking and backbone; printers
Business case A five-year forecast showed costs to maintain legacy technology versus new technologies and new efficiencies. Showed significant savings from efficiencies and innovation that benefits the business and delivers best value to ratepayers
Challenges Huge area to be covered, staff training and acceptance, creating the business case to secure budget, new digital models for service delivery
Timeline
12-month project started Jun/Jul 2014: Preplanning
Aug: Infrastructure and data centre build
Oct-Dec: Early adopter user program
Jan-Feb 2015: Lenovo desktops to 160 staff
Mar: Data centre go-live
Apr: Relocate 160 staff to new offices with new technology
Next: Sonic Healthcare
CASE STUDY THREE: Sonic Healthcare
Independent practitioner network
When encountering a distressed patient for the first time, the First Aid book says ascertain their physical state and stabilise their condition.
Sonic Healthcare PMO project manager Karl O’Connor took this first-responder approach to uplifting an eight-year-old medical IT network. The project came in preparation for an e-health overhaul on the 300-clinic Independent Practitioner Network (IPN) of serviced medical rooms that it had acquired.
“That environment hadn’t been refreshed in eight years. They’d been using a hodge-podge of anything and everything from Windows XP to Windows 7 and other devices hanging off an unmanaged domain.”
Unmanaged, consumer-grade connectivity was supplied by several ISPs: “Supporting the network was a nightmare because you never knew what you were going to meet.”
With Sonic’s chief operating officer as his champion, O’Connor created an enterprise network to link ultimately 5,000 new Dell PCs running a Windows 7 standard operating environment. System Center Configuration Manager handles patching and deployment, and software was remediated to comply with licensing rules.
A ‘mixed bag’ of servers was standardised and equipment in doctors’ offices locked in a rack with uninterruptible power, and air-conditioning to meet legislative requirements, while data and electrical cables were replaced. And the phone system was updated to Avaya.
“The biggest challenge was getting the business buy-in to ensure [management] support for the significant organisational change we were introducing; a very structured environment that the organisation and staff weren’t used to,” O’Connor says.
“Less downtime means more productive time at the clinic: less time calling IT, fewer outages; [we] deliver a stable platform to allow you to perform your critical role that is doctoring or nursing or admin rather than having to support things internally and contact service desks. Remove that completely.”
The new system will consolidate practice and clinical management software systems into a single application, Best Practice.
Sonic is progressively rolling out the IT over two years, and has completed 24 sites to date. O’Connor is pleased that staff are warming to the rollout and asking to be bumped up the list. O’Connor says the remotely managed infrastructure is well received with “negligible” calls to the service desk.
O’Connor says the previous support organisation lacked understanding of the role of IT. “If it worked, it worked and if it took a fair bit of pain to maintain, so be it. Sonic has a much more structured view.”
O’Connor’s teams started by rolling out one site per weekend and he plans to ramp up to four sites a weekend across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia. To speed it up, O’Connor convinced Dell to store 300 small form factor PCs locally, instead of shipping them from Malaysia.
Fact file
Devices Dell small form factor i5 desktops, 4GB RAM, 50GV SSD
Number deployed 5,000 PCs (600 deployed so far)
Supplier Dell
Other technology deployed Dell servers, cables, UPS, air-conditioning, racks and managed services, practice management
and patient reporting systems
Client status New
Technology replaced Eight-year-old PCs
and unmanaged network
Business case Provide a stable, compliant and managed network to support doctors’ offices and provide a foundation for
e-health innovation
Challenges 300 offices spread across Australia; writing the business case;
user acceptance and training
Timeline Two years, progressive rollout (up to four offices a weekend)
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