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Businesses could save 15% by equipping their mobile workforce with rugged devices

Pay now to save later says latest research from analyst IDC and Panasonic Business

Bracknell, UK. 12 JULY 2017 – Businesses could make total cost of ownership savings of 15% over five years by equipping their mobile workforces with rugged notebooks, tablets and handheld devices, according to calculations by Panasonic Business. It’s TCO Calculator, launched today, shows that these savings could be achieved through reduced failure rates and extended use if Panasonic Toughbook and Toughpad devices were deployed.

“The challenge is in convincing IT decision makers to pay now, to save later,” said Jan Kaempfer, General Manager for Marketing at Panasonic Computer Product Solutions. “Due to the superior design and investment in protection, rugged devices often cost more than a traditional notebook or laptop but as the evidence quite clearly shows, the return on investment quickly pays-off – in year one for tablet and handheld devices and year two for notebooks.”

To fully understand the costs of notebook, tablet and handheld device damage to organisations, Panasonic commissioned IDC to research IT decision makers at 800 organisations across a broad range of vertical industries.

Failure Rates
They found that on average about 18% of a company–s notebooks require repair of some kind during a year. The majority of these repairs are due to accidental damage. The repair numbers are slightly lower for tablets (16%) and handheld devices (14%), but they are still material. While 11% of notebooks are likely to fail in the first year and the likelihood of failure nearly doubles to 21% by year five. Year one tablet failures are 13% and year five failures 19%. Year one handheld failures are 14% and year five failures 17%.

At Risk
The components most often damaged in the notebooks were the screen, followed by the keyboard and then the storage drive (HDD or SSD). For tablets, the most damaged component was the screen, followed by ports or connectors and then the outer chassis. For handhelds, the top component likely to be damaged were the screen, the battery, and the outer chassis.

ROI Calculations
Respondents report spending an average of £1,075 per non-rugged notebook and £1,616 per rugged notebook. A look at the annual device failure rates and the average per-incident repair cost of £2,775 shows that the ROI for rugged devices is achieved by the second year of the non-rugged device. This schedule is well within the two-year eight-month average PC refresh cycle for respondents in the survey.

For tablets, the premium for rugged devices is less than for notebooks and the cost benefits of rugged devices are easily achieved. Respondents report paying £1,016 for non-rugged tablets versus £1,140 for rugged devices. Given an average repair cost of £2,003, the ROI is achieved after the first year.

For smartphones and handheld devices, the average price paid for non-rugged devices is £659 and for rugged devices is £762. Given an average repair cost of £2,512 for these devices, the ROI can be expected to be achieved after the first year.

“Rugged devices do cost more to purchase up-front, but based on the amount of money saved in terms of employee downtime, IT servicing time, and other related costs, the investment in a high-quality rugged device could pay dividends for years,” concluded Jan Kaempfer.

Download an Executive Summary of the Pay Now, Save Later research here http://img03.en25.com/Web/PanasonicManufacturingUKLtd/%7b68b185c0-ad9a-49e2-80e0-6646634fd26f%7d_IDC_Whitepaper_EN.pdf.