Older PCs costing SMBs Rs 93,500 per device: Microsoft-Intel study

The cost of upkeeping a PC older than four years can be used to buy atleast three new modern PCs for SMBs, a Techaisle report by Microsoft and Intel found.

The study, which surveyed a total of 2,156 SMBs across India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea revealed a direct cost implication for such businesses from loss in productivity and security risks arising due to use of outdated devices. In India, over 500 SMBs were surveyed.

Getting into specifics, the study highlighted that SMBs with an older PC or laptop could end up with a whopping Rs 93,500 spend per device!

Respondents in the study said that their top business priorities included increasing business growth, higher productivity as well as profitability. Investing in mobility as well as cloud solutions and managed services were among the top IT priorities.

One of the findings in the study addressed the crucial issue of data theft breaches citing how, in the last year alone, as many as 43% of the SMBs faced PC security breaches but only a mere 12% of them reported the attacks.

Priyadarshi Mohapatra, Country General Manager - Consumer & Devices Sales, Microsoft India said that awareness plays a key role here. “It is our job to clearly define the call for action. We formed a three pronged strategy of educate, engage and empower. In educate, we run a series of campaigns where we truly tell them the cost of holding an old device, how it affects productivity which then impacts bottomlines and how efficient things can actually be when one moves to a modern device.”

He further added that they are working closely with a large partner ecosystem that will cover the length and breadth of the country. “We will touch 1000 partners every six months in terms of training and educating them who in turn will take the narrative into the SMB community. So we aim to target SMBs across 20 cities in the country,” Mohapatra said.

India is home to over 51 million MSMEs, which contribute over 30% to India’s GDP. The Techaisle report found that despite the various cost implications and security risks, 49% of the larger SMBs and 31% of small SMBs continue to be on older PCs.

Rahul Malhotra, Director-Retail, Intel India said that a lot of benefits can come by to SMBs if they make the shift. “If their objective is to grow their business, they have to optimise costs and ensure that their data is secure. The transition between different devices has to be seamless. They will need modern devices to address the challenges.”

In India, more than 61% of PCs used in SMBs are still on older versions of Windows today, according to the study. “The invisible costs jump up manifold for SMBs by using such older versions,” added Malhotra.