Jude Buyco, IT supervisor for global advertising agency McCann Erickson, seems to think so. As IT head of a company that has been using Apple Mac computers for close to 10 years, Buyco is confident that Apple has what it takes to enter the enterprise scene.
"There are Apple Macs right now that use Intel chips, so Windows operating systems can be installed on dual boot," he explains. "And there are programs today that allow for Windows applications to be ported to the Mac OS X."
The enterprise innovation landscape over the past few years has seen a lot of changes brought about by the need to cut costs while maintaining productivity during the recession. Innovations such as virtualization, consolidation and unified communication have enabled firms to be grounded even as the financial storm raged on.
One such technology--that Buyco sees as the deal breaker for those companies wanting to switch to Macs--is cloud computing, which allows users to access applications through the Web browser. "With enterprise software being ported to the Internet as Web applications, it's very possible that some companies may opt to switch to a Mac," he says.
The interoperability of applications has long prevented companies from making the big switch to Apple Macs, Buyco says. "Macs are durable, reliable and very secure, but not a lot of applications--especially those designed for the enterprise--are available for its operating system," he adds, saying that support from software developers is needed in order for this goal to be realized.
Despite this, Buyco continues to praise Macs for its solid security system. "For the ten years that we have used Macs, I'd say we never had to deal with a single virus targeted at our Mac units in the entire history of McCann Erickson," he proudly narrates. "Getting hacked on a Mac is likewise a very remote possibility," he adds.
Regardless of these top-of-the-line features, Buyco believes the entrance of Macs into the corporate zone will be won in a very hard-earned battle over PCs. "Macs are generally multimedia computers. They were really built for multimedia and graphics, which sets it apart from the rest."
Computing power and some utility applications are already accessible through the Mac, Buyco says. "But right now, using a Mac for enterprise purposes is like buying a Volvo car and using it as a jeepney," he reiterates, citing unique features of Macs that make it suitable only for certain purposes.
"We use around 100 Apple Mac units at McCann Erickson mostly for the Creatives and Design departments, because graphics is really native to the Mac," he explains. "We use it for graphic design and multimedia editing, among others, because of the clarity and crispness of the graphics."
Buyco said one could only take a single look at an image produced with a Mac and a PC and not find it hard to tell the difference. "Macs have better color synchronization between the screen display and the actual print output," he says. "Being in the advertising industry, our clients focus mainly on the color of our outputs." This, he says, is better achieved with Macs.
Aside from impeccable graphics capabilities, Buyco says they also trusted Macs for their durability. "We have Mac G4, G5 and Macbook Pros in the office," he narrates. "The Mac G4 is the equivalent of a Pentium III PC, which is already obsolete. Ours is still operational till now," he quips.
But is their choice to shift to Macs--after using IBM PCs prior to it--a logical step towards improvement, considering the high cost of Apple Macs? "We consider it an investment, because clients are satisfied with the results," he says. "Otherwise, we consider it as something that generates income and saves us costs, considering the durability and reliability of the units."
McCann Erickson's use of Macs, though beneficial and smooth-sailing at the time being, is not met without a few kinks that needed to be ironed out along the way. "Most of our issues are work-related, such as loads becoming too heavy, units needing upgrade or normal end-of-life problems of components," Buyco enumerates.
"But one of the main issues with the shift is managing user perceptions," he clarifies. Buyco says Macs call for a special training course for employees to be able to grasp the new system. "Good thing our artists and designers prefer Macs, so they have a grasp of it already," he adds.
Buyco advises companies looking to shift to a Mac to think twice before jumping the gun. "There's a possibility of employees having learning curves, especially if they're used to operating a PC," he warns. "It slows down productivity and, strictly speaking, not everyone is prepared or armed to use a Mac."