Mac enterprise support software improving
As Macs begin to creep into the executive suite where intensive support is a must, the software used to support Apples in large businesses has begun to improve.
When the only Apple computers in a large company were in advertising and marketing, and that was not long ago, Apple support was not a mainstream IT concern. Now that Macs are being requested in the executive office area, that is all changing. Now, with that higher profile usage growing, IT department pressure on support software vendors has finally forced the issue and support software for Macs is improving.
At least that is the view from software support company Bomgar, suppliers of software and hardware support solutions for the enterprise. Nathan McNeill, VP of product strategy at Bomgar, says “Over the last year or two, vendors have had to make the Mac piece work. They’ve had to support and test it and put it through a full QA process. No longer is baseline support enough.”
Companies that allow Macs into the environment, a growing number, now have a penetration rate of about 5 percent, according to an ITWorld story. If the support software inside such organizations is not sufficiently Apple-centric, IT workers end up spending a disproportionate amount of time supporting the Mac, not because it is harder to support but because Apple support has been a largely manual process. Now, that is changing.
Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Jon Oltsik says, “I recently heard this expression in the market: 5 percent equals 20 percent. The issue is that of that 5 percent penetration rate, a large portion are C-level folks. The PC support people say that because of the expectations of executives, providing Mac support occupies about 20 percent of their time.”
Bomgar is seeing these problems, and has moved to improve the Mac support part of their systems. Other companies in the support software arena are following suit. The number of Macs in the enterprise are growing, and IT support budgets are shrinking. That is a gap that can be bridged by more Mac-friendly support software in the enterprise, and that day is now dawning.
Related Posts:
May 28th, 2009
Yawn. Another Yeti-UFO-Nessie-Mac in the enterprise story. Not that there is any question the build quality is a problem. Enterprise remains application-centric. Not sure how iWorks fits in.
It’s a lack of OSX native software. I suppose this mythical horde of CEOs demanding iPhones and Macbooks exists somewhere, but 5% equal 20% sounds like pure Jobsian spin.
Buying a Mac so you can run Windows isn’t currently in vogue in the current economic climate of shedding workers, frozen budgets etc….iI’ve seen more IT guys with Macbooks than executives.