Computer, Heal Thyself!” Workers Demand
Employees Wish for Self-Healing PCs, Expect Glitches During Tech Upgrades, and Admit They Could Do More to Support Corporate “Green IT” Initiatives, New Survey Finds
TAMPA, FL, March 10, 2010 – According to a new survey, sponsored by Persystent Software, 65 percent of employed adults in the U.S. who have a work computer wish they could fix themselves when they are not working properly. The same survey, conducted online in January on their behalf by Harris Interactive®, also found that these adults had serious skepticism about the success rate of any computer upgrades, with about a third expecting something to go wrong when new updates are installed. The findings strike a cautionary note as businesses across the country consider migrating to the latest operating system from Microsoft, Windows 7. Persystent Software, developers of the world’s fastest “self-healing” PC repair solution, provides solutions that automate repair of failed PCs, imaging of new or repurposed machines, and compliance with government or company-imposed policies.
Employees Wish that Computers Could Fix Themselves
In the wake of the current economic meltdown, many organizations are challenging their IT departments to continue to improve efficiencies and find new ways to support growing business demands with ever-shrinking resources. One area of IT seeing a dramatic transformation is the help desk, where outsourcing – overseas, to managed service providers, or into the cloud – is a rapidly increasing trend. In fact, according to IDC, the worldwide demand for third-party technical support and help desk services will grow to over $30 billion by 2013 . Alternatively, many IT organizations are turning to software solutions that help automate many core help desk tasks to reduce cost while maintaining a high level of service to business users.
“There's something to be said for a PC utility that automatically finds and fixes problems upon reboot, given that the first remedial action to fix a troubled PC is typically to just reboot it,” said Dennis Callaghan, enterprise software analyst with consulting firm The 451 Group in a recent report. “As more companies outsource their IT help desks and IT departments are forced to do more with less, there will be a greater demand for automated remediation of the desktop and self-healing PCs.”
Employees Fear Upgrades
One reason to wish for self-healing PCs, the new survey found, is that nearly one third of working adults who have a work computer (32 percent) expect something to go wrong during a technology update or upgrade. As many companies consider migrating to Windows 7, IT departments are under tremendous pressure to ensure the process goes smoothly and doesn’t impact employee productivity. The new release of Persystent Suite 4.5 will offer a unique solution to help reduce the perceived risks associated with OS with the migration of new and existing PCs by automating the process end to end. From a web-based management console, IT simply captures a base “repair point” to which the computer can be quickly recovered, automatically or on demand, should something go wrong during the upgrade, or if the OS or applications get corrupted at any point in the future. In so doing, Persystent Software also enables the success rate of software patch deployment and can even help IT to extend the life of some PCs.
Employees Confess Truths about Their PC Power Management
Additionally, the survey showed that nearly half (45 percent) of employed adults in the U.S. who have a work computer are not conscientious about turning it off when they are not using it. Given that computers are huge consumers of electricity, the fact that almost fifty percent of these adults admit they don’t power down their PCs, signals a major cost-saving “Green IT” opportunity for most organizations.
According to published EPA estimates, the energy required to run one PC for 24 hours straight can put up to 8 lbs of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Annually, some have estimated that more than 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy is wasted because people simply do not power down their computers when not in use. With the customizable Persystent Software automated PC shutdown feature, controlled from a centralized management console, IT can designate which groups or individual PCs need to be shut down during non-critical work hours and report on it for auditing or power credits. As documented with its ROI calculator, Persystent Software can help reduce an organization’s power costs by more than $100 per PC each year.
“The modern corporation is completely reliant on technology to drive its business – from the data center to the desktop,” said Joe Loughry, president and CEO, Persystent Software. “With that in mind, we’ve developed a unique software solution that automates three critical areas of IT support – efficient imaging, rapid recovery and consistent compliance. No other solution in the market delivers as much value in a single solution.”
Additional survey results include the following:
• One out of four employed adults in the U.S. frequently work from laptop computers from remote locations.
• About one out of five employed adults (19 percent) in the U.S. often have issues with their work computers where they need to contact IT help desk.
Survey Methodology
The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Persystent Software between January 22-26, 2010 among 2, 218 U.S. adults ages 18+, of whom 1,196 are employed and have a work computer. Data was weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult computer user population. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Complete methodology – including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes – are available upon request.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us—and our clients—stay ahead of what's next.
About Persystent Software
Persystent Software solutions ensure that end-user desktop and laptop computers are always available and fully functional – whether in the office or on the road. Persystent Software developed the world’s fastest automated PC recovery solution that restores application and operating system (O/S) files that are corrupted, changed or missing with just a simple reboot of the computer. In addition to keeping end users productive, Persystent Software “self-healing” PC solutions enable IT staffs to control PC damage, eliminate manual re-imaging, automate OS migrations, reduce help desk calls, enforce compliance, and improve the success rate of software patches and updates. Additional benefits include energy savings through reduced PC power consumption via an automatic shutdown feature. Founded in 2002, Persystent Software has been instrumental to organizations in government, healthcare and education sectors with limited resources to support a high ratio of employees to IT staff and 24/7 business uptime.
For more information on Persystent Software, visit www.persystent.com.
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Elizabeth Yekhtikian
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