survey shows favorite brands and best configurations.
by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless
getting the right mix of mobility is critical for firms today. the accounting professional’s rule of thumb is that everyone who works out of the office one day per week or more and needs to be self-contained should have a laptop as their only machine.
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the obvious exception to this is for tax or administrative personnel who would never work from remote client sites and have a computer at home that they can use to connect to the firm via a secure remote access solution.
however, this is changing. the string of natural disasters over the past two decades, along with the promotion of remote work opportunities to retain staff and the transition to more cloud-based applications, has led to some firms toward making the decision that all professional staff will utilize a laptop as their only workstation.
laptops should be scheduled for replacement every three years, whereas desktops are often functional for a fourth year. in cloud-based firms that utilize workstations primarily as “dumb terminals” via tools such as citrix and microsoft remote desktop server (formerly windows terminal server), the functioning life of a desktop computer can be five or more years.
today, there is little benefit in purchasing off-brand computers, and most firms buy workstations from dell, hp and lenovo. one of the keys for a stable environment is to buy the business versions rather than consumer units and to standardize on as few models as possible within the firm. studies done in the past found that such standardization could reduce the total cost of ownership by 26 percent or more.
dell still leads the pack for desktop brands with 68% of cpafma 2018 it survey respondents making them the first choice, followed 20% by hp and 12% by lenovo. for laptop brands, dell was not as dominant with 60%, but continued to be one of the top three brands along with hp and lenovo at 17% each. within the remaining “other” computers were four firms selecting microsoft surface pcs, which could be signifying the start of a new trend as 3% of firms stated they would be going to smaller laptops in the next year.
the most popular laptop configuration continued to be a 15.6” with full keyboard (including a ten-key number pad) at 58% of respondents, followed by 23% of firms buying 17” models as their standard, compared to 14% selecting 14”-15” with the standard keyboard and 4% buying 13” or smaller (including microsoft surface pcs) without an integrated number pad in the keyboard. the survey also asked what computer processors firms were planning on purchasing in the year ahead and 52% selected intel’s i7, 44% intel i5, 3% intel i3 and 2% listed “other” which could be either apple or amd.
firms have also found that buying rather than leasing makes more sense, as the firm can roll out replacement computers at their convenience, instead of being forced to complete a transition by a specific date to return the leased laptops. cloud-based firms are also finding that the life of their workstations can often be extended one to two years as the bulk of computer processing is being done on the cloud-based servers.
the key components firms should be concerned about when evaluating workstations are ram, processor and solid state drives (ssds). the firm standard should be a minimum of 8gb ram, with tax personnel having 16gb to handle the increased number of applications loaded simultaneously in today’s digital environment. for traditional computer networks in which much of the work is processed on the workstation, the minimum processor used by accountants should be an intel core i5 and for the more robust needs of tax users an i7 processor would be recommended. for firms moving to the cloud, an i5 processor and 8gb ram is the recommended minimum, but some cloud tax applications have “fat” local applications needing 16gb ram so it is important to verify vendor feedback with peers.
one of the significant changes in laptop design that occurred in 2012 was the rollout of ultrabooks that are less than 1” thin, weigh less than three pounds and have a battery life of more than five hours. these highly mobile devices were designed to provide an alternative to the proliferation of tablets that many desktop users were acquiring to do work when away from their desk. while tablets (apple ipad, android) have become valuable tools for “consuming” information, the vast majority of work performed by cpas is still done on traditional desktop and laptop computers that have access to multiple screens and full-size keyboards.
an interesting trend from the cpafma 2018 it survey was the noticeable increase in firms that were piloting microsoft surface and other hybrid “2 in 1” devices. microsoft’s surface pro units are a fully functioning hybrid between laptops and tablets, but the overall cost has been traditionally higher than laptops and peripherals, so adoption in cpa firms continues to be cautious.
recommended actions:
- maintain laptop and desktop inventory to identify annual replacement requirements.
- purchase name brand business-class workstations in as large a lot as possible to promote standardization.