Wipro Technologies has found that many enterprises can cut their annual desktop support costs by over half (55 per cent) by standardising their PC configurations.

It will help in significant savings by replacing their desktop systems every three years. These findings are part of the Wipro's major global research study aimed at providing enterprises with valuable quantitative data to help them minimise the total cost of ownership of their desktop systems.

This study surveyed 30 global companies with an average of 33,000 desktop personal computers deployed to identify the best management practices that lead to the highest reliability levels while minimising overall hardware support costs.

The study resulted in two key findings. Desktop support costs can more than double as the number of desktop hardware configurations increase.

For instance, companies with 20 desktop hardware configurations spend approximately $275 in annual support costs per desktop, compared with companies with 40 desktop configurations who spend about $540 in annual support costs per desktop.

The other finding is that desktop support costs exceed the cost of new PCs as companies attempt to extend the usefulness of PCs beyond three years.

For example, companies with a three-year desktop lifecycle pay approximately $485 per PC in hardware configuration-related support costs, compared to approximately $590 in support costs for companies with four-year programmes and $690 for companies with five-year programmes.

"This is the first time that the real costs of poor desktop lifecycle management and multiple PC configurations have been clearly documented. This study provides a detailed analysis of how enterprises can significantly reduce desktop support costs by consistently configuring new PCs and systematically decommissioning older Pcs," Theo Forbath, chief strategist and practice leader of Wipro's Product Strategy And Architecture Practice, said.

Wipro Technologies' Product Strategy & Architecture Practice, which focuses on intersection of business and information technology strategy, conducted the study and analysed each company's desktop environment and PC management processes.

Wipro's PSA Practice interviewed CIOs, IT directors and senior IT managers at the 30 participating companies. The PSA team examined the companies' costs associated with deploying new desktop computers, deploying new operating systems to existing desktop PCs and deploying major application software and minor software updates to existing desktop PCs. The PSA team focused on the following IT tasks related to PC support.

After analysing the surveyed companies' desktop management practices and annual support costs, Wipro developed a theoretical cost model to determine the optimal level of desktop complexity and length of desktop life to produce the greatest savings in support costs.

Wipro's analysis found, for example, a company with 40 PC hardware configurations takes three times longer to deploy a minor software update than an organisation with 10 configurations.