Cio’s Choice

CIOs choice for mobile computing

Notebooks, in general, are allocated to marketing/sales and senior management because they travel frequently and therefore need mobility. Focusing on the user community, Malabika Sarkar makes an attempt to find out where IT heads are making investments in notebooks

All organizations do not necessarily have a common basis for acquiring notebooks. Indeed, there are various methods of notebook acquisition. Certain organizations go by the position of the concerned person in a department; space and the aesthetics of the organization while others go purely by the mobility requirement that calls for notebook PCs. Since the cost difference between a notebook PC and a desktop is not much when compared to its utility, notebook deployments are becoming more flexible and open.

Express Computer spoke to some CIOs and IT heads about the actual consumption of notebooks in an organization and the criteria for the purchase of these products and gained some interesting insights. Shubhojit Roy, Head-IT, SBI Mutual fund, said, “Initially we were providing notebooks to senior management officials only, but if you consider the trend of the last few years and the price cuts, we have provided notebooks to people in the sales and marketing departments. Additionally, we provide notebooks to other business functions also, but that depends on the nature of functions and upon business requirements.”

Mobility, a key factor

Based on job requirements, notebooks are given to employees who are mobile. This policy addresses the allotment of notebooks to senior management, marketing, sales, product design, development and testing functions, etc. Apart from these departments, nowadays, even personnel from the HR and after-sales service departments are given notebooks. When it comes to a workforce that has to stay mobile, notebook PCs are more suited to this profile. Members of technical teams are also given notebooks which can result in more productive employees by increasing the number of hours that they can work.

Manish Gupta, Head-IT, Tata Motors, said, “In our company, the allotment of notebooks for mobile employees is based on the recommendation of divisional and/or departmental heads. Notebooks are procured on the basis of actual requirements consolidated in the beginning of the financial year. As of now, we are not planning to replace our entire desktop range with laptops. The key criterion for justification of issuing a notebook to an employee is his job requirement, i.e., whether he is mobile or not as per the demands of his job.”

Configuration dependent on the user profile

Talking about the criteria for purchase one has to keep in mind while purchasing notebooks, V Chandrashekhar, Divisional Head-IT, Apollo Tyres said, “We have to look at the minimum requirement of the notebook configuration keeping in mind the applications that are planned for rollout within the next three years. Support is one important factor, wherein global support is mandatory as most of the notebook users travel abroad as well. As of now, we are working on just Windows-based notebooks due to the expertise available within the organization and Windows’ compatibility with various applications.” He continued that his organization went on the basis of the need—to be justified by both individuals and the IT department. He added, “Our desktops in the organization within the office spaces are getting replaced increasingly by notebooks as the mobility of most employees is increasing.” Roy added, “We consider various points while purchasing notebooks in the organization. These include configuration, for which function and/or section of employees we are buying these notebooks, the warranty, the on site support availability from the vendors, operating systems, weight and battery backup of the notebooks, etc. Also, price is another criterion while buying notebooks, especially if we are buying for a large number of employees. Since most of our sales people are spread across the country and with the setting up of new offices in smaller cities or towns also, the delivery and availability of on site support from the vendor is also an important consideration for us.”

There are several factors that one should keep in mind when choosing a laptop, the most important of which is reliability. Any new computer system represents a substantial investment, and doing thorough research and comparison shopping is always well worth your while.

Laptops, being portable, become part of your personal equipment for living and working. There are many examples of how a notebook can be designed to suit a person’s needs. There are industrial notebooks that are ‘rugged’ and built for extreme environments. This could well be your notebook of choice for any sort of field work that involves extreme temperatures or elevation.

What sales folks need

However, a few major criteria when acquiring notebooks for sales people are that a standard configuration is required, which should meet the requirements considering the weight and battery backup of the notebooks. For power users, machines with a high-end configuration are required, but weight is always an important criteria for all notebook purchases. Only in the case of office users where weight is not a top criteria for selection. “Higher processing power with multi-core technology, additional RAM and high capacity HDD, excellent pricing are some of the criteria for us while purchasing notebooks. We use Windows-based systems since we have a partnership with Microsoft,” added Shailesh Mehta, Founder and CEO-GurukulOnline Learning Solutions.

When asked about the justification given to the senior management to support notebook purchases, Roy said, “We have a notebook/laptop policy for the organization. As per this policy, all people in sales and/or marketing functions, and people in the senior management of a certain grade and above are eligible for notebooks. With the price of the notebooks coming down and notebooks providing greater convenience to some users, the number of notebooks in the organization have gone up significantly in the past two to three years.” He continued we have provided notebooks to other people also, who are not in sales functions. These were basically in place of the desktops. Hence, to a certain extent, notebooks have already started replacing desktops in many areas.

Sangeetha C Kumaraswamy, CTO, whereismyboss.com said, “Technology companies face a productivity challenge. Previously we worked in the hierarchical organization that were optimized for mass production. Now networks of human resources and faster communication tools are optimized for delivering innovative goods or service. We can no longer rely on a fixed workplace. Hence notebook PCs can improve the knowledge supply chain. Additionally the prices of notebooks have come down to match those of desktop PCs fueling demand. With the same investment there can be an increase in the productivity among employees and aid in distance working or work from home when required.”

On the other hand, talking about the percentage of the total budget in Information Technology Department, invested in purchasing notebooks in an organization, Kumaraswamy and Mehta jointly agreed, about 15% of the total IT investment is earmarked for purchasing notebooks. In Tata Motors it’s around 2.5% of the total IT budget that is invested on purchasing notebooks. Roy, SBI Mutual fund, said, “Of the total hardware budget for the year, around 7-8% is spent on the purchase of notebooks.”

Securing notebooks

The main benefit of a notebook is its portability. This can be a huge benefit, which allows taking the computer to and from work, on airplanes, on trips, and practically anywhere else. Along with this benefit comes a large drawback. It is just as easy for someone else to walk off with it. Notebooks are stolen at an alarming rate, because they are just so easy to steal. When a computer is stolen, you not only lose the value of the computer, but also valuable data.

Using an anti-theft device to secure a notebook, therefore, makes sense. One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to secure your mobile PC is to use a security cable, with or without an alarm, to attach your mobile PC to a stationary object. Most mobile PCs have security slots in the side or the back of their case. Use a security cable wherever you leave your mobile PC, such as hotel room, a conference room, a co-worker’s office, or a trade show booth.

When asked about the preparation with protection against mobile PC threats as far as security is concerned, Kumaraswamy replied, “Yes, we are prepared to an extent with anti-virus, firewall, anti -span solutions deployed on notebooks and we are constantly on the lookout for new challenges and ways to overcome troubles as and when the need arises.” Roy added, “We have considered this issue selectively, but not at the organizational level. I think we have to consider this at the enterprise level as the number of notebooks has gone up significantly in recent times and there has been an increase in the cases of notebook theft.” However some companies are ISO 27001 certified organizations on information security. They follow certain guidelines for mobile notebook security.

Another lifesaver is notebook data recovery. We do not live in a perfect world, and the fact is that accidents happen. All too often, they seem to happen to a notebook—liquid is spilled on the notebook, or it is dropped, or it gets infected by a virus. If this happens, notebook data recovery tools permit you to access files on your notebook hard drive while it is being fixed. If notebooks are used for business, the material stored on hard drive is probably time sensitive and many of us do not keep hard copies or backup discs. With notebook data recovery, one can continue functioning normally while a computer is being repaired.

One should make sure to go to a professional who specializes in notebook data recovery. A notebook hard drive is more compact than that of a desktop computer, and special equipment is needed to extract data from it. Most of the time, unless it has suffered a mechanical accident, the hard drive itself is all that is needed for data recovery.

That having been said, not all data can be recovered in all cases. Here again, it is worth shopping around for the best service. The technical support staff at the outlet where computer is being bought may offer data recovery services, but the best choice is to go to a company that specializes in notebook data recovery. Nowadays, so many of us depend heavily on our computers; in case of an accident, virus or any other mishap, it’s good to know that data recovery is often a viable option.

Back up data

It’s important to regularly archive documents, folders and settings so that one can retrieve data if the notebook PC is stolen or if its hard disk drive fails. Now, how often one should create backups depends on the number of files created and the frequency of file creation. If files are created everyday, then one might back them up weekly or even daily, sounds like a drag, but this is a routine that simply cannot be ignored. After all, the notebook can be replaced but not the data in it if there is no backup available. You can back up your data to a CD or DVD, a USB flash drive or another computer if the mobile PC is on a network. Again with the Blu-ray disk that is making the rounds these days, even more data can be stored on a single disk. It’s best to schedule regular, automatic backups that run even while you are working on the mobile PC.

Convenience is all that matters

Considering how much notebook PC have improved in the past five years or so, it’s no wonder that so many companies and individuals are considering buying a notebook PCs, or have already done so. Unlike just a few years ago when it used to be prohibitively expensive, about twice the cost of a desktop computer, notebooks are pretty much affordable these days with prices comparable to those of traditional desktops. They were also heavy, delicate (had to be looked after very carefully, with the proverbial ‘velvet gloves!’), and had short battery lives of a couple of hours if at all and all these factors tended to discourage consumers. Nowadays, though, things are different. Most of these problems have now been ironed out, and notebook prices have also come down to give a fight to desktops. Nowadays, when we compare the portability of notebook with desktops, the former makes lot of sense. In general, buying a notebook is now accessible to a great many consumers, even those who don’t absolutely need a portable computer.

malabika.sarkar@expressindia.com