IT needs to take a closer look at what end users want from desktop experience

SUNNYVALE: A study of end users’ satisfaction with their desktop experience has brought to light the spasm between IT and end users on what constitutes a good user experience in the areas of security, performance, and productivity.

The survey conducted by Dimensional Research for AppSense, a player in user environment management (UEM) solutions shows end users have high expectations from their desktops and often feel that desktop security limits their productivity.

Some of the key findings include:

Security:

i.    63 percent end users ranked unobtrusive security as important to a great desktop experience compared to 46 percent of IT professionals.

ii.    35 percent still limit their end users’ ability to personalize their desktops based on corporate security policies. As a result, frustrated end users believe that security is negatively impacting experience.

Application request process timing:

i.    86 percent end users ranked good performance, including application request processing times, as the top factor impacting their great desktop user experience. IT professionals rated this 11 percent lower than end users.

ii.    63 percent of both end users and IT professionals’ ranked fast logon and logoff times as the third most important factor to a great user experience, they diverge on what a fast logon time truly is.

iii.    63 percent end users believe an acceptable standard is a logon time of 30 seconds or less. In contrast, 42 percent IT professionals believe that an acceptable end user logon time can be three minutes.

Productivity:

i.    71 percent of end users believe a good desktop experience impacts the quality and productivity of their work. 55 percent of IT professionals say providing a great desktop experience to employees significantly impacts business outcomes.

ii.    52 percent end users feel their productivity would benefit from being able to personalize their computer. Of those that were permitted to personalize their desktop, 92 percent recognized the value of their ability to personalize.

iii.    Yet, 95 percent of IT professionals limit desktop personalization, with only 5 percent allowing end users to change their desktops in any way they like.

“Our research shows that IT needs to take a much closer look at what end users want from their desktop experience,” said Jed Ayres, Senior Vice President, Marketing, AppSense.  “IT professionals enforcing corporate security policies and limiting end user choice are preventing end users from working the way they want and slowing productivity.”

How UEM can close the desktop experience gap between IT and end users?

•       Faster logon times (63 percent)

•       Preventing corruption and bloating of user profiles (52 percent)

•       Tightly controlling application access (45 percent)

•       Simplified image management (43 percent)

•       Secure enterprise file sync and share (39 percent)

•       Least privilege enforcement through granular admin rights (33 percent)