“Old ways won’t open new doors.” ~Author unknown
For as long as most can remember, going to work meant being jammed into rows and rows of cubicles, working specified hours during the day. Employees trudged through the massive tangle of humans and modes of transportation to arrive to their desk by 9am and didn’t see daylight again until 5 pm (and only during the spring and summer did they see any daylight at all.) Any time out of the office significantly impacted productivity. Not just of the employee who is out of the office but any team projects they may be collaborating on. The rigid way of working not only impacted the productivity of the employees but also the job satisfaction and work-life balance.
At first glance, you may wonder why employee satisfaction matters? Isn’t it their job to come in, put in the required time before going home? Anything that happens out of the office stays out of the office? But this old way of thinking can result in stagnating growth and eventual demise of the business you have spent years building. Studies performed by economists at the University of Warwick found that employees who are happy with their job are approximately 12% more productive than those who are unhappy. Aside from just the productivity gains, the studies show that happier employees are less likely to call off for the day and reduces job turnover. HR Daily Advisor reports in order to replace an employee, it costs the average business 30%-50% of an annual salary to replace an entry-level employee, and the cost can skyrocket from there up to 400% for a highly specialized employee.
The good news is advances in desktop technology has enabled businesses to help foster their employees job satisfaction and productivity. Virtual desktop technology has moved from the physical data center to the virtual data center, increasing the productivity of your front line as well as your IT staff while increasing security, reducing complexity of the management of your solution and even the cost of maintaining and providing technology solutions to your team.
5 Major Ways Hosted Virtual Desktops (DaaS) Can Help Your Business
Hosted Virtual Desktops are not new. Years ago, much of a business’s technology moved out of the data center and into the cloud, changing the way businesses procured the necessary tools for their workforce. The subscription economy enabled businesses of all sizes to tap into technology previously only available to large corporations with big budgets and has evened the playing field. Here’s how cloud technology, like desktop-as-a-service can help your business, regardless of the size.
Increase Your Productivity Through Anywhere Access
Employees are no longer expected to be chained to their cube at the office, leading to the challenge of how do they remain productive without physical access to their work product? Desktop-as-a-Service with Hosted Virtual Desktops can solve this challenge by enabling anywhere, anytime access. Computer, tablet, cell phone. MacOS, Android, iPhone, PC all become irrelevant challenges as the only application a user needs to access their desktop is an internet browser. Issues that previously would have paralyzed a user from making progress are easily overcome. Think about winter weather, that seems to have been especially harsh this season, and an employee is unable to drive into the office due to the conditions. They did not have warning that the storm would be as bad as it was so did not bring their work computer home with them and the report is due today. Previously, this would have resulted in either another worker who could make it in covering for the employee who was unable to make it in or the report was late. With DaaS and Hosted Virtual Desktops, all the stranded employee had to do was grab their personal device and log into their workspace through the browser and continue to collaborate with the rest of the team.
Save Time and Effort Through a Hassle-Free Operation
The old way of managing desktops was time consuming and complicated. New employees onboarding process took weeks, especially if it was a situation like multi location resort who had a remote call center workforce strategy. When new employees were hired, IT had to procure the device (either new or from a stock of inventory), clean it for use for the new employee, install the required applications, secure the device, send the username/access code to the new employee, etc. The list could go on for days. With Hosted Virtual Desktops, IT can choose to provide the device themselves or start a BYOD strategy but still maintain control over the applications the employee uses. The process of setting up a new employee desktop involves two steps.
- Log in to the user management interface and set up the user name, password and access level of the new employee.
- Email the information to the new employee.
Days of work for the IT staff can be reduced to minutes.
Keep Your Data Secure
Cyber threats are an ever present and changing risk. As soon as new security protocols are developed, new cyber threats are created in an effort to break through those walls. Unless you have a dedicated cyber professional on staff, which can be very expensive thanks to the specialized certifications and knowledge they have, keeping your data secure with a self-managed solution can be challenging to say the least. DaaS solutions, however, are typically built with this in mind and cloud providers typically procure and maintain dedicated cyber security professionals who only have on task: keep up on the latest cyber trends and how to secure a solution to keep malicious sources out. The majority of the cyber risk and challenge of securing the network relies on the provider, instead of the business. While this does not entirely release the user from responsibility of securing their endpoints and data, it can significantly reduce the complexity.
Get Flexible Operations with High Scalability
Traditional virtual desktop management solutions could be extremely rigid. There was a limit to how many desktops could be running concurrently, causing a loss in productivity when an employee was unable to access their needed applications and documents. Hosted Virtual Solutions remove this barrier. dinCloud, for example, has built their Hosted Virtual Desktops on Nutanix Hyperconverged Infrastructure and in a way that enables businesses to scale up or down depending on the needs of the business at that time. The system is easily accessible from both within the office and out in the event that a new desktop was needed, enabling your IT Staff to grant access regardless of their physical location. All desktops can be spun up or turned off from a web browser, giving your business and staff extreme flexibility in the management of their solution.
Reduce CAPEX and OPEX
The typical lifecycle of a desktop is approximately 3 years. Within that cycle, businesses spend countless hours on the physical maintenance of the device. From physical procurement of the device and software, to maintenance and end-user costs, it can cost a business anywhere from $280 to $480 per desktop in a traditional desktop lifecycle. Hosted Virtual Desktops can provide the same features and functionality but at just 10-20% of the cost. How is this possible?
To start, by utilizing a hosted desktop solution, businesses remove the burden of securing the required infrastructure, physical space to house that infrastructure, and the utility fees to run that infrastructure. Not to mention the time and effort to manage the system that is required of an in-house IT staff. All of these fees and tasks are offloaded when you use a Hosted Virtual Desktop Solution and the provider of the service takes on the expense of the infrastructure and time of the maintenance, freeing your internal staff up to focus on other mission critical needs.
Hosted Virtual Desktops Revolutionizes Desktop Delivery
In order for businesses to effectively compete, they must be able to recruit top talent and react with agility to the rapidly changing market conditions. If a business is hampered by technology that is rigid in implementation and the ability to ebb and flow with the business’s needs, they will be unable to meet the demands of their consumers. Hosted Virtual Desktops Hosted Virtual Desktop’s from dinCloud give businesses the upper hand. By enabling choice in the implementation and delivery of their desktop solution, businesses gain a unique ability to not only pivot on a dime but attract top talent. The flexibility of the solution allows businesses to choose how they deliver the workspace to work best for each unique individual and department. Learn more about how hosted virtual desktops can benefit your business in this free whitepaper “Making a Case for DaaS.” Revolutionize your business now.
