For companies that rely on I.T (almost every company on the planet these days), there are multiple operating systems available for use for desktop machines. Primarily, Microsoft within the business realm and Mac within the creative space. (Not forgetting Linux and a small percentage of other operating systems within the desktop space for other streams of business.)

The focus of this article is on the creative space and how Mac’s can literally halve your I.T. ongoing costs.

Photographers and designers have been using the Mac platform for decades – due to it’s design and marketing edge within the industry. After all, if you talk to any serious designer or photographer, they will be using high end Mac’s with plenty of grunt, flexibility and – one of the most attractive facets within the computing world – stability for their day to day life styles – not just for work.

It’s a well know fact that Mac’s look good, feel good and perform exceptionally, but it seems that the markets outside of the creative space haven’t caught up and employed Mac’s into the common business environment – except in a design based role – or perhaps within the server infrastructure.

Sadly, it’s to the detriment of their current business. Why? Well, it’s an argument that has been going for a long time (as to which is better – Mac or PC) – but, what it really comes down to at the end of the day – is “what your outcome is”.

Business Outcomes
Business is driven by outcomes – whether financial or other, it is the outcome of the business that will provide for it’s employees, owners and share holders in a multitude of ways.

Outcomes are driven by process and methods that support the outcomes and provide the necessary means to get there.

The necessary means to get there are often supported by I.T. in a multitude of ways.

Depending on what business space you work in, I.T. can be seen as a god send, or a nightmare.

If you talk to a small business owner, you will often receive variations on whether Mac or PC is the preferred choice of desktop, but often the things that many small business owners overlook is the outcome of what they are trying to achieve from an I.T. perspective.

In a nutshell, as a small business owner myself, I am looking to put the right services needed into place and lower my I.T expenses as much as possible.

The right services will obviously depend on what your requirements are, but without a doubt, these will include email, web, internet, phones, printing and collaboration in different ways – usually across different locations.

Enter the hybrid model
Five years ago, when I.T. technicians were asked “how do I join a mac to my network” – pandaemonium broke out. PC based network administrators started talking about the “dark side” (and still do) and company financial controllers starting thinking about the added expense.

Gone are those days. Today, joining a Mac to “PC” based network is a very, very simple process. (Plug and play, follow the wizard stuff).

What about email, printing and collaboration?
Well, within the “non-creative” space, it’s a Microsoft world – or has been in the past. Not so anymore with the release of Novell’s exchange killer (commonly known as Groupwise) or Apple’s iCal server.

Printing has never been easier, as even simple network capable printers support Mac os x (and the ones that don’t can be shared out from a central server or through 3rd party add-on’s).

In terms of email – both Apple Mail and Entourage support Microsoft Exchange servers out of the box (more so Entourage than apple mail) – for shared calendaring, tasks, notes – and Entourage actually takes Outlook to the next level with the project centre.

File sharing in either environment is a simple process and more.

What about I.T. support?
Ah, the question at hand. Let’s put it into perspective.

As an I.T. Administrator – I will spend up to 2 times more time – from a support perspective – than with Mac computers. The justification for this is simple.

• Innovation
• Robustness
• Standard Hardware
• Simplicity

Simplicity – which from a business perspective often equates to productivity. The reasoning for this – a computer that works at 100% peak efficiency – allows for the people using them to be more productive.

Standard Hardware – most big to large companies are buying hardware from suppliers such as IBM, Dell, HP etc – because of the standard hardware and hardware agreements for the future.

Robustness – no registry on a Mac (thank you Apple) – no dll’s and no virus’s.

Innovation – Intuitive is the word that comes to mind. Read this.

More information – http://www.apple.com/business/ OR http://www.apple.com/getamac/faq/

Need further proof?
Here is a small selection or articles posted on the web:

• http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_17/b4081061866744.htm?chan=magazine+channel_special+report
• http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/drmac/5700626.html
• http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/reviews/4258725.html
• http://www.apple.com/pro/tips/ical_assistant.html?sr=hotnews
• http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/04/23results.html?sr=hotnews
• http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/21/17FE-macs-in-business-tease_1.html
• http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/apple-imac-24-inch/4505-3118_7-32976339.html
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2290394,00.asp
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2291329,00.asp
• http://www.apple.com/business/profiles/intezyne/?sr=hotnews
• http://www.apple.com/hotnews/#section=all&page=1

Halving your I.T. Desktop support.
It’s easy – Get a Mac – spend a week exploring the benefits and you will ask yourself – “why didn’t I do this earlier?”.

Warm Regards,
Scott Malpass
Aquafruit Media