Distributed Workforces Demand Superior Digital Experience: 4 Ways High-Performance, Ultra-Light Laptops Can Empower Employees

Distributed Workforces Demand Superior Digital Experience: 4 Ways High-Performance, Ultra-Light Laptops Can Empower Employees

October 19, 2021

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Over the past 12+ months, workplaces have become more mobile, more distributed, and more digitized. Employees are interacting more than ever before, via productivity tools and video conferencing apps across multiple geographies, in real-time. A recent Gartner 2021 Digital Worker Experience surveyOpens a new window reveals a 44% increase in the usage of collaboration tools since the pandemic began.

But no matter what collaboration tools and applications organizations use to meet the requirements of remote and hybrid workers, overlooking the PC infrastructure — a key driver of the digital agenda — will lead to poor business outcomes. If digital tools are critical to collaboration in today’s digitally interconnected world, up-to-date PC fleets and end-user devices form the bedrock of the new hybrid work model. Research from Barco ClickShareOpens a new window shows that the “laptop is now the single most important thing in most employees’ working lives, with 77% saying they couldn’t bear to be parted from it while at work.”

For Employees, the Struggle is Real

A 2020 studyOpens a new window by Intel and Lenovo, Empower Your Employees With the Right Technology, showed just how far behind the curve organizations are when equipping workers with the primary technology tool they need to succeed in the new business world. Half of the employees (50%) surveyed considered their PC devices out-of-date or insufficient to support their digital workspace.

For tech-savvy workforces, frequent hardware problems and configuration issues, regular blue screens, poor audio and video quality can all get in the way of deadlines and lower productivity. The study found that workers feel increasingly frustrated with workplace technology – 44% of respondents reported that their devices break down, while nearly half (46%) said the software malfunctions often.

Bottom line — if businesses in the distributed workforce era want to remain productive, they must match workplace technology needs to employees’ expectations. Unlike the pre-COVID era, when employees could access IT support onsite for any device issues that arose, the work-from-anywhere era has created a new set of challenges for PC fleet management and maintenance. In decentralized work environments, workers who lack readily available tech support spend more time on do-it-yourself IT fixes at home, or worse, learn to live with sub-optimal device performance, which degrades the user experience and directly impacts productivity and compromises security.

Around 40% of workers who responded to an Intel studyOpens a new window , Introducing the Intel® Evo™ vPro® Platform, said they spent two to three hours a week fixing IT issues related to productivity applications. Even senior executives are not immune to the hassle of underperforming devices, further impacting business operations and continuity.

See More: Keeping it Nimble in Hybrid Era: Maximize Connectivity, Collaboration & Mobility With the Right PC Platform

Empower IT With Industry-Leading PC Management Platform

In addition to employees expecting top-of-the-line PC experiences, IT too needs to be empowered to manage PC fleets optimally.

Recent high-profile security breaches highlight the risks associated with older device infrastructure, which is susceptible to frequent component failures and software vulnerabilities. Over time, legacy systems running on outdated operating systems can pose new security challenges to IT.

With ransomware attacks ramping up, security has become a top priority for IT teams under pressure to protect hundreds or thousands of devices from malware attacks and prevent threats from reaching end-users. By refreshing PC fleet devices integrated with hardware-enhanced security, IT can use advanced threat detection and response capabilities to help contain and shut down ransomware and cryptomining attacks. Additionally, upgraded PC fleets provide above and below-the-OS protections, which are now crucial to threat prevention strategies.

IT operating processes too need to build in efficiency to optimize over-stretched resources. Instead of putting out fires and rebooting corrupted systems that soak up more resources than are available, IT needs next-gen PC platforms that simplify and streamline fleet management and maintenance. For instance, remote management capabilities that enable out-of-band device repair help to minimize the time, cost, and effort of managing distributed PC fleets and allow IT to stay focused on business-critical initiatives.

In the new reality, IT needs to ensure that flexibility, high performance and ultra-mobility are integrated into their PC technology adoption plans and ensure that IT environments can handle the increasingly complex cyberattacks that show no sign of letting up.

Solutions such as Intel® Evo™ vPro® platform-enabled laptops get to the heart of what hybrid workers want and what IT needs and help them stay ahead of the technological curve. From powering the best business PC experiences for collaboration and on-the-go work1 to simplified fleet management with the most comprehensive enterprise-grade security,2 the Intel Evo vPro platform shifts several paradigms.

Whether it’s a small and midsize business or a large enterprise environment, the Intel Evo vPro platform, embedded with hardware-enhanced security, fits perfectly in the daily lives of hybrid workers seeking thinner, faster, lighter and safer devices.

See More: When Design Meets Performance: How to Ace User and IT Remote Work Productivity With Thin & Light Devices

The Big Rethink: Redefine PC Experiences from the Ground Up

Replacing legacy PC fleets with modern devices powered by a top-of-the-line platform such as the Intel Evo vPro can serve the needs of all stakeholders — business leaders, employees and IT. Here are four powerful ways modernizing the PC fleet can help boost productivity, collaboration and security :

1. More performance and power

Today’s modern workforces require ultra-portable devices that go above and beyond the standard features. Intel Evo vPro platform-enabled devices integrated with Intel® Iris® Xe graphics deliver a significant performance boost over prior generations and provide a better, faster way to work. From multi-tasking to fast browsing, the significantly improved processing speeds can help business users get through demanding workloads faster and more smoothly. For instance, Intel Evo vPro platform users experience up to 27% faster productivity with Office 365.3

The top beneficiaries of the groundbreaking Intel Iris Xe graphicsOpens a new window are professionals running graphics-intensive design software who can experience 3x faster photo and video editing.4 Today’s mobile workforces seeking a longer-lasting battery to get through their workdays unplugged can count on the Intel Evo vPro platform to deliver 9+ hours of real-world battery life.5 Additionally, a fast charge that gives four or more hours of real-world battery life in under 30 minutes6 helps employees stay productive and efficient, no matter where they are.

2. Faster connectivity & collaboration

The world is moving to the latest and fastest Wi-Fi protocol — Intel® Wi-Fi 6 technology that improves wireless network performance and provides enhanced security protocols. This Intel studyOpens a new window found that employees and IT decision makers surveyed value device connectivity the most, with 76% percent of employees and 88% percent of ITDMs describing it as highly important. To meet this demand, the Intel Evo vPro platform offers lightning-fast connectivity with Intel Wi-Fi 6/6E (Gig+) that delivers up to 6x faster speeds in an enterprise environment and triple the speed performance for today’s typical home networks.7

High-speed connectivity technology is critical to enable better collaboration and video conferencing experiences to dispersed workforces. For example, in remote and hybrid workplaces, sharing across the cubicle is no longer possible. In this context, screen sharing capabilities were billed as a key feature by 64% percent of surveyed employees. Participating ITDMs appreciated it even more (80%) as many rely on this feature to provide remote technical support to their power users today. With video collaboration soaring, faster connectivity can help make daily Wi-Fi issues a thing of the past.

3. Remote manageability and PC fleet stability

Unbootable computers, ‘blue screened’ devices and machines with OSes frozen or hung have become all too commonplace, as this survey shows. According to the Intel study, 17% of employees said their device crashed or became completely unresponsive 4-6 times a month. At a time when IT teams are pressured to do more with less, PC fleet remote manageability from Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) helps IT minimize day-to-day maintenance of devices. With Intel AMT, IT can remotely access devices regardless of the state of the OS as if they were standing in front of the device and provide diagnosis or remediation, lowering user downtime and maintenance costs.8 Faster remediation of devices allows companies to minimize costs of replacing hardware and reduces the burden of on-site visits on IT resources.

Additionally, the Intel Evo vPro platform inspires confidence in its user base due to a rigorous validation and testing process of all its inner components. In a business environment that is constantly changing, the Intel® Stable IT Platform Program (Intel® SIPP), a part of the Intel vPro® platform, is an extensive validation program that aims for no hardware changes for a minimum of 15 months or until the next generational design. Less change translates into greater stability, which means IT spends less time revalidating PCs over the course of a complex rollout or for one-off purchases.

4. Security

For too long, organizations have relied on software-only solutions to protect endpoint devices. But in the face of staggering ransomware and firmware attacks that have taken a turn for the worse over the past year, securing devices from the bottom up has become a critical imperative to combat ever-growing emerging and unknown threats. Intel has been leading the industry in engineering systems that provide comprehensive foundational protection at the firmware layer and embed security capabilities above- and below-the-OS to protect endpoint devices that are now on the frontline.

IT leaders looking to capitalize on emerging technologies can leverage the Intel Evo vPro platform’s Intel® Threat Detection Technology, an industry-first silicon-enabled AI threat detection that helps stop ransomware and cryptomining attacks. Another industry-unique capability integrated into the platform is Intel® Control Flow Enforcement Technology, which further hardens hardware-based security and helps protect against common malware attack methods that can’t be mitigated by software alone. With increasingly dispersed and mobile workforces working away from the office, organizations must ensure that end-user devices are equipped with enterprise-grade security features to protect an organization’s resources and data.

See More: 3 Device Management Challenges For Modern IT Operations (And How to Overcome Them)

It’s Time to Upgrade to Devices Designed for Unparalleled Mobile Efficiency and Flexibility

With remote and hybrid becoming a standard for most organizations, the next-gen workforce demands greater flexibility in where they work — from local coffee shops, shared co-working spaces or satellite offices. The growing demands have pushed ultra-mobile, thin and light and secure PC solutions to the top of the list for IT leaders. Regardless of the location, leaders need to ensure that end-user devices are secure and robust enough to improve employees’ workday, no matter where they are.

Organizations laying the foundation of a hybrid working environment should focus on improving the end-user PC experience to help workers become more focused, productive and efficient in the ‘anywhere work’ era. This means modernizing PC fleets with faster, more powerful, thin and light devices to help companies transition to the hybrid work era and realize long-term productivity and business growth. Simultaneously, advances in PC infrastructure will empower IT teams to advance PC fleet management, lower maintenance costs and strengthen cybersecurity defense.


Notes & Disclaimers
1 Source: In thin & light Windows-based devices, based on 1) unique features and performance testing on industry benchmarks and Representative Usage Guides across 3 key usages: productivity, creation, and collaboration, comparing Intel® Core™ vPro® i7-1185G7 to AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U and 2) an IOActive study (commissioned by Intel) comparing Intel® Hardware Shield security capabilities on 11th Gen Intel Core vPro processors with corresponding competitor technologies. All testing as of December 2020. Intel Evo vPro designs are co-engineered as part of Intel’s comprehensive laptop innovation program Project Athena then tested, measured, and verified against a premium specification and key experience indicators to ensure unparalleled user experiences. Visit www.Intel.com/11thgenvpro for details. Results may vary.

2 Source: In thin & light Windows-based PCs. No product or component can be absolutely secure.
Based on unique features and testing by IOActive (commissioned by Intel; as of December 2020) comparing Intel® Hardware Shield security capabilities with corresponding technologies in an AMD Ryzen Pro 4750U-based system. Visit www.intel.com/11thgenvpro for details. Results may vary.

3 Source: As measured by Microsoft Office 365 workflow 11th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro® i7-1185G7 Processor vs. 8th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro® i7-8650U Processor. Visit www.intel.com/11thgenvpro for details. Results may vary.

4 Source: As measured by Video Editing workflow. 11th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro® i7-1185G7 Processor vs. 8th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro® i7-8650U Processor. Visit www.Intel.com/11thgenvpro for details. Results may vary.

5 Source: Time taken to drain from 100% to critical battery level while performing typical workflows in a realistic environment. Visit www.Intel.com/11thgenvpro for details. Results may vary.

6 Source: Intel® Evo™ vPro® platform-based designs with 11th Gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and FHD displays Charge attained in 30-minute window while powered off from OEM-default shutdown level. Visit www.Intel.com/11thgenvpro for details. Results may vary.

7 Source: For more information about the data presented, visit www.intel.com/wifi6disclaimers.

8 Source: Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) requires a wired or wireless network connection to provide remote management. Wireless support requires Intel AMT to be pre-configured with WiFi profiles or to be configured to duplicate WiFi profiles from the operating system when it connects to a new WiFi network. Intel AMT cannot join new WiFi networks without the operating system first connecting to them. Results may vary by use, configuration and other factors.

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.Intel.com/11thgenvpro.
For workloads and configurations visit www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex.
Performance results are based on testing as of dates shown in configurations and may not reflect all publicly available updates. See configuration disclosure for details.
No product or component can be absolutely secure.
Your costs and results may vary.
Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software or service activation.
Intel does not control or audit third-party data. You should consult other sources to evaluate accuracy.
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Brad Rudisail
Brad Rudisail is a technical writer and a former IT manager specializing in delivering today’s complex technical subjects in a palatable format to tech-savvy business leaders. Brad has spent 20 years in the IT field as a network engineer, IT manager, instructor and technical writer. His portfolio includes a long assortment of white papers, articles and learning curriculum. He is an accomplished pianist and composer as well as the author of two inspirational books.
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