Smaller companies are beginning to adopt Macs, and some analysts recommend switching, but not rushing.Although Windows-based PCs still proliferate in the business world, the Mac
is ever so slowly weaving its way into the fabric of the workplace. And the
first to raise the banner will be tech-savvy small and midsize businesses
willing to take a chance.
"Whereas law firms, doctors' offices and more traditional businesses
tend not to be as receptive, smaller, more nimble firms tend to be more open to
Macs, because they see the value," said Irwin Lazar, principal research
analyst at Nemertes Research.
Part of the reason, Lazar posited, is because smaller firms tend to hire
younger, more progressive employees—employees who are very comfortable with
Apple's technology.
"When it comes to the Mac, there is a huge generational gap,"
Lazar said. "For example, every university I've talked to has seen a huge
adoption of Macs among college students, and as they enter the work force, they
will bring that preference with them."
Lazar said slowly but surely, this is happening already. One organization
Nemertes Research talked with as part of ongoing research on the issue told
Lazar that although it mandates Windows PCs for its employees, it found that
new employees insisted on bringing their own Macs and setting them up to work on.
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Even some larger organizations are experimenting with Macs. At Cisco
Systems, for example, 20 to 30 percent of the company's employees now use Mac
desktops, Lazar said, with users setting up their own internal support organization
to manage their issues.
In addition, several recent reports from sites like AppleInsider note that IBM
is undertaking a Mac pilot program, with the possible intention of moving some
portion of employees to the Mac platform.
Mac aficionados see many benefits. Today's Macs are equipped with the same
configuration as most PCs from Tier 1 vendors, and they tend to be more stable
and secure. What's more, Apple technology isn't mired in proprietary protocols,
making switching easy, and the Mac now runs Windows on the Intel platform, so
even if a company has applications that only run under Windows, it's not a big
problem, according to Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at JupiterResearch.
The popularity of Apple's Xserve processor also is helping companies become
for comfortable with Apple technology. The Xserve allows businesses to have all
of the applications needed to run a business, such as e-mail, storage, Web
proxy server, security services and shared calendaring, which may prompt
companies to consider an all-Mac environment.
But the move is still very slow. That's because for many companies,
switching to the Mac doesn't make sense, at least not yet.
"It still has the traditional problems—it's from a single vendor, so
there is little leverage to negotiate on price, and then there is the issue of
retraining all of your users. I just don't see any particular benefit to
switching, at least today," said Nik Simpson, a senior analyst at Burton
Group.
The issue of support is another showstopper for many companies, at least for
now.
"Today, there aren't many professional services companies that support
the Mac. Even a lot of hosted mail services like CenterBeam support Windows
desktops, but not the Mac," Lazar said. "We'll eventually see the
growth of support organizations that support Mac, but until then, you're not
going to see companies adopt Mac wholesale."
But the slow but steady march of the Mac into the business world—at least in
the SMB space—clearly has begun. For many companies, the first step is simply
being more flexible. Rather than providing employees with preconfigured
Windows-based machines, for examples, some companies are giving employees an
allowance to buy whatever machine they want and access corporate applications
either through a Web browser or virtualization technology.
For companies intent on a wholesale switch to the Mac, Gartenberg
recommended a phased migration.
"Once you make the strategic decision to move to
the Mac, figure out tactically which departments to migrate first, such as
those with more users familiar with the Mac or departments where it makes the
most sense," Gartenberg said, adding that it makes sense to switch users
to Macs as their existing PCs reach the end of their useful lives. "It's
really easy. You plug a Mac into your network and it just works," he said.
