LANDesk customers realise 698% return on investment; average payback period is 5.1 months

LONDON, February 16, 2011 – LANDesk Software, a global leader in systems lifecycle management, endpoint security and IT service management, today announced the findings of a commissioned ROI study by IDC on the use of LANDesk products to automate IT change and configuration management processes. The study found that on average, LANDesk customers realised a three-year return on investment of 698% for their deployed LANDesk solutions – a nearly sevenfold return. The average payback period to recover the initial investment averaged a short 5.1 months.

“Overall, the analysis demonstrates that automating manual processes is critical to reduce costs and simplify IT complexity,” said Mike Hall, senior vice president of sales and marketing at LANDesk Software. “IT executives need to do more to control the management of new desktops, servers, and particularly the ever-increasing variety of mobile devices. LANDesk solutions help IT provide greater business value, even as their IT environments rapidly increase in scale and complexity.”

Keeping users productive is one of the main functions of the IT organisation, requiring continual updating, patching and migration of PCs. Customers interviewed for the study reported challenges in managing the diversity of desktops, laptops, servers and mobile devices in their organisations. These challenges include asset and license management; automated provisioning; desktop management; operating system deployment; secure endpoint management and patch management.

Organisations participating in the IDC study were able to quantify the following benefits from deploying LANDesk management solutions:

IT staff productivity increase. Optimising IT staff activities through automation reduced IT staff time spent keeping the lights on by an average of 41%, freeing up valuable staff resources for more business-related initiatives. The result was an annual savings of $15,674 per 100 users. Key areas of improvement include:

Automating client and server management:  Companies in the study were able to reduce the time to set up and configure each desktop from 2.2 hours to 1.0 hours and the time to build and package each image was reduced from 8 hours to 30 minutes.  Companies also reduced software distribution time by 39%.

Help Desk Optimisation:  Automating the set up, configuration, security and administration of help desk functions improves the quality of IT services and reduces the costs of providing help desk support.  Findings included a reduction of help desk calls by 20%. Level 1 responders are now able to resolve 78% of problems, while before they could only address 48% of calls.

User productivity increase. User downtime caused by system outages, virus attacks, security intrusions, and change and configuration activities was reduced by 49%. The result was an annual savings of $9,441 per 100 users.  One key area of improvement included system downtime which was reduced by 75%.

IT cost reduction. Optimising IT operations reduced costs in multiple areas including infrastructure, outsourced services, management software, and IT travel. The result was an annual savings of $6,907 per 100 users. Key areas of improvement include:

Companies were able to improve inventory management and avoid unnecessary purchases where companies in the study were able to reduce their server hardware purchases by as much as 50%.

By being able to power down during periods of non-use with the LANDesk power management module, the customers in the study were able to reduce their desktop power consumption by 5% to 30%.

Total customer benefits cited in the study were $32,022 per 100 users annually.

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. For this study, IDC conducted in-depth structured interviews with IT managers and professionals from a selection of global LANDesk customers. Data gathered from these interviews was analyzed using IDC’s standard ROI methodology.

To view a copy of the IDC report, “Gaining Business Value and ROI with LANDesk Software: Automated Change and Configuration Management,” visit www.landesk.com.