Gartner says employees should buy their own laptops

Firms should introduce employee-owned laptop programmes to encourage productivity gains and reduce costs, according to analyst group Gartner.

Successful employee-owned notebook programmes have the potential to improve user productivity, create a clearer boundary around IT responsibilities and pass more IT costs to the user,” said Gartner analyst Brian Gammage.

Gammage explained the cost associated with PCs is the maintenance and support. “The costs go down for the enterprise if the notebook is provided by the employee because the employee takes more responsibility fixing the computer in their own time,” Gammage added.

Employees can be encouraged to participate in the programmes if firms pass on some of the savings, said Gammage. He suggested a payment of £34 (AU$71) a month for the cost of the notebook hardware, and an additional £13 (AU$27) a month for the cost of the notebook maintenance would be attractive and affordable.

One reason for hesitancy could be licensing fears, he conceded. But Gammage said software vendors were becoming more flexible in their thinking and that this hurdle should be removed in the next few years.