Mac enterprise users have oversize support impact?

The consumerization of IT has lead to more Macs than ever in corporate work environments. Unsurprisingly, tech support staff is complaining that OS X users, though relatively few in number, account for a disproportionate and growing share of support issues.

News.com reports that as enterprises Mac up PC support people, and there’s the beginning of a rub, say that OS X computers tend to account for about 5 percent of the installed base and that users tend to be upper management and front office types, another potential source of friction. Jon Oltsik with News.com said:

These folks get top priority and can be very demanding, so network and endpoint administrators have to be on their toes and establish strong Macintosh ‘chops’ quickly. As a result, some IT professionals claim that 5 percent of Macs may as well be 20 percent of the total PC population. Thus 5 percent equals 20 percent.

The article goes on to posit that management can and should get what it wants, and that any “excess PC support costs” will ultimately be justified by happier and more productive suits.

Oltsik seems to have skipped from a need to establish Macintosh chops to excess PC support costs without blinking or mentioning the word “incompetence.” There isn’t any mention of the advantages of a heterogenous computing environment vis-a-vis security either.

And, yes, what exactly is wrong with happy users and why isn’t that the goal versus less complaining from tech support?

Also, although Oltsik blithely states that executives ‘are very demanding,’ he quite oddly assumes that a manager and a PC with its conflicting drivers and half baked hardware will be somehow less needy than the same guy using a Mac. Moreover, how is it that folks who use Apple-branded computers are so darned satisfied (80 percent), with the closest PC competitor ranked at best 10 points back, yet once a Mac gets the through the lobby suddenly it’s tech support’s satisfaction that we’re discussing?

IT’s ingrained “world upside down” way of thinking reminds me of Henry Ford and his uniquely absurd attitude toward customer satisfaction, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”

What’s your take?

• 

• Mac enterprise support software improving
• Macs are easier to support, say IT managers
• Microsoft: iPhone not good enough for business and enterprise users
• New York Times: Times Reader Beta is now available for the Mac; No support for Safari users
• Consumer Report; Apple ranks number one for tech support for both its notebook and desktop computers