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Unisys Poll Shows Workers’ Changing Preferences in Use of IT in the Workplace


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More than half of respondents prefer using their own PC or a hosted virtual desktop over company-provided equipment

BLUE BELL, Pa., - An online poll of more than 500 enterprise information workers recently conducted by Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) shows that a majority prefer using their own PC or a hosted virtual desktop to do their work and to access information resources.

Only a minority continues to subscribe to the traditional model of using a PC provided and managed by their company.

In answering the question, “What is your preferred form of personal computer technology for work?” 55 percent of the 532 respondents favored a non-traditional approach to workplace productivity. Of those respondents, 36 percent said that they prefer to bring their own PCs to work, while 19 percent indicated that they prefer to use a hosted virtual desktop. Less than half – 45 percent – said they still favor a PC provided and managed by their company.

“These poll results demonstrate that today’s multi-generational, technology-smart workforce is no longer satisfied with a restrictive model of enterprise IT support,” said Tony Doye, president, Unisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services. “They want continual access, at their convenience, to the resources that help them do their jobs, and they want that access through the means best suited to their individual work styles – whether those are smartphones, netbooks, laptops or any devices using a virtual desktop.”

The Unisys poll results corroborate growing evidence, from industry analysts and other sources, of workers’ interest in using mobile technologies for work – especially those they supply themselves.

For example, in the November 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. report “The State of Workforce Technology Adoption” (1) – based on a survey of 2,001 US information workers – one in three respondents said that they use a personal mobile phone for work. In addition, the Forrester survey shows that younger workers tend to believe that the technology they have at home is better than that which they have at work: 34 percent of the youngest generation of workers, the so-called Gen Y, felt that way, compared to only 22 percent of older Baby Boomers.

In addition, a recent Gartner, Inc. survey of 528 IT managers in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom (2) showed that 43 percent of the respondents’ companies have specific policies that allow use of employee-owned devices. The survey also indicated that the participants expected the average number of workers using employee-owned notebooks as their primary work PC to increase from 10 percent in 2009 to 14 percent by mid-2010.

To address the evolving requirements of this multi-generational workforce – which comprises Gen X as well as Gen Y and Baby Boomers – Unisys recently launched End-User Productivity Services. These services are designed to meet information workers’ increasingly diverse expectations about where and how they work, the best IT resources to use and the type of IT support they need to maximize productivity in their preferred work environment.

Unisys End-User Productivity Services also enable CIOs to reduce end-user costs by providing support for devices, desktops, applications and mobility through a flexible mixture of traditional, virtualized and secure cloud-based service delivery models.

For more information on Unisys End-User Productivity Services, click on the following link: http://www.app3.unisys.com/simplify/euoss/.

Going forward, Unisys plans to track and report on knowledge workers’ changing preferences in use of technology at regular intervals.

Notes to Editors

(1) “The State of Workforce Technology Adoption: US Benchmark 2009,” Forrester Research, Inc., November 11, 2009.

(2) “User Survey Analysis: Employee-Owned Notebooks Gaining Popularity in Mature Markets,”by Annette Jump and Meike Escherich, Gartner, Inc., October 19, 2009.
About Unisys

Unisys is a worldwide information technology company. We provide a portfolio of IT services, software, and technology that solves critical problems for clients. We specialize in helping clients secure their operations, increase the efficiency and utilization of their data centers, enhance support to their end users and constituents, and modernize their enterprise applications. To provide these services and solutions, we bring together offerings and capabilities in outsourcing services, systems integration and consulting services, infrastructure services, maintenance services, and high-end server technology. With more than 26,000 employees, Unisys serves commercial organizations and government agencies throughout the world. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.



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