If we’ve learnt anything from 2020, it’s that the business environment can change rapidly. This is not news to the savviest creators, entrepreneurs and professionals that make up today’s workforce.

They know that agility is essential for staying one step ahead of the curve. Skillsets need to change rapidly to meet opportunities, and the ability to deal with dynamic new information is highly sought after.

This is what some have called “hustle”. Once a term for nefarious activities, it has been repurposed for the modern business world. Hustle now means thinking outside the box of traditional careers, businesses and ideas – and staying agile to act quickly on opportunities when they appear.

The tech challenges of hustle

The biggest driver of career and entrepreneurial success is now the ability to learn new information and act with rapid speed. However, if our technology can’t enable this agility, we are hamstrung before we’ve even begun.

We need devices that allow us to create and manage our businesses, as well as our own personal brand. This could include the ability to stream live video, design our own website, run our own digital marketing campaigns, and manage a growing audience of prospects and customers.

This requires bandwidth, power, and analytics. You need to stay connected and creative simultaneously, while having the insights to spot potential roadblocks. It also requires technology that can quickly troubleshoot disruptions and downtime.

Few disruptions are as catastrophic as cybersecurity breaches, and cyber attackers will target individuals just as easily as they target organisations. Wherever you are in the world, and whatever your hustle involves, you simply cannot afford the downtime associated with ransomware, phishing attacks and malware.

Your device is the driver of your success

​To be successful as a creative professional or entrepreneur in any field, you only go as far as your tools allow you too. Few business investments will be as consequential as the technology and tools that enable you to find new customers and bring your ideas to life.

For anyone who is hustling, HP’s Elite Dragonfly laptop powered by Intel® Core™ i7 vPro® processor features an x360 degree hinge to flip from laptop to tablet.  It’s tiny, incredibly light, flexible enough for any kind of hustle and powerful enough to run your business.

With extended battery life, you can stay connected with optional gigabit-class 4G LTE and gigabit-speed Wi-Fi 6 – meaning you’ll never miss a single opportunity. Best of all, these devices include next-gen security for protecting firmware that antivirus solutions can’t with HP Sure Start Gen 4. By automatically self-healing the BIOS from malware, rootkits, or corruption, you can minimise downtime, and prevent costly security breaches.

The Laptop Company can help you hustle with devices that deliver power, performance and security – both for you and your employees. As an HP Gold Partner and supplier of computers to corporate, education and small business users throughout NZ, we can help you choose the ideal device for driving business success.

Purchase any HP EliteBook, EliteDesk, ZBook or Z Workstation before 30th April 2020, and you’ll also be eligible to choose a free gift from HP NZ of either:

• HP EliteDisplay E243 23.8” FHD Display, valued at $415.
• HP Thunderbolt Dock & Bag Combo With a choice of HP 15.6” Business Top Load Bag OR HP 17.3” Business Backpack, valued at $560.

Find out more by visiting www.laptop.co.nz/hp

Common wisdom for running Excel is that just about any PC will do.  For investment firms, researchers and data analysts, however, things change.  They use tools like Excel differently from other users.

These users are highly intelligent, able to visualise complex problems, and capable of creating methods to extract information from big data sets using tools like Excel and Tableau.  The more they can do with more data, the more they can achieve.

If your team’s laptops are maxing out on CPU utilisation, fan speed and memory, or experiencing reliability problems relating to high thermal loads, a switch to mobile workstations can pay dividends.   

CPU performance for mobile workstation class Intel Core i9 versus mainstream Intel Core i5

Intel Core i9-9880H versus Intel Core i5-8265u benchmarks November 2019
Note: Optimised thermal design required for sustained performance outside test conditions.

​What’s the difference between Lenovo’s flagship corporate laptop and their leading mobile workstation?
​​Both are designed to be thin and light while providing high levels of performance and excellent display quality, but each is designed for very different types of user.

Carbon Fibre and Magnesium Alloy casing
Optional Touch Screen
Dolby Atmos speakers
2 USB 3 ports, 2 USB-C Thunderbolt 3, LAN connector and headphone jack

Both are robustly designed with backlit keyboards, webcams with privacy shutters and a similar look-and-feel.

​The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 has been proven as a strong performer across enterprise fleets – higher performance users opting for Intel Core i7 with 16GB of memory will find ample performance and long-haul flight battery-life.  The device is particularly slim and light and offers a premium look and feel that far exceeds cheaper fleet and retail devices.  This is well-suited for deployment across a typical corporate or government workforce where durability and dependability is important.
​
The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 2, is similar looking on the outside but quite different under the skin.  While remarkably thin and light (and pretty) for a mobile workstation, its heavy-weight performance does mean the device is heavier and uses more power than the X1 (while running faster).  Despite the powerful components, typical corporate users won’t see an appreciable difference in performance for applications like Word or Outlook.  However, users of complex and massive Excel worksheets, Tableau, crypto and workstation-class engineering, editing, design and animation suites will notice a substantial boost.  

The ThinkPad P1 Gen 2 has a near-twin in the ThinkPad X1 Extreme.
With NVIDIA GeForce graphics, the X1 Extreme is optimised for high frame rates and superior gaming performance. 
The NVIDIA Quadro graphics found in the P1 are optimised for stability, sustained thermal load and fidelity.  Like-for-like, we would opt for the P1 for users who need workhorse-like stability for productivity, especially for staff on billable time. 
The X1 Extreme is extremely attractive for corporate users who need quality gaming time when overseas.  We would give the entry level Intel Core i5 a miss in favour of an i7 six core or greater setup to make the most of the device.

Waste is nothing new, and neither is recycling. What has changed drastically in recent years is the massive amounts of electronic waste or e-waste we’re creating.

Because most of us only buy a new electronic device every 1-2 years, we don’t tend to worry about what happens to our old devices. We dutifully recycle plastic and glass on a daily basis, but we pay less attention to what should or could happen to our electronic devices when we’re finished with them.

When we consider the number of new devices our business rolls out every year, it’s no surprise that we produce upwards of 50 million tonnes of e-waste every year globally. Much of this e-waste is dumped illegally, and e-waste landfills are considered some of the most toxic places on Earth.

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be this way, as our electronic devices can still be circulated back into use in one form or another. When we design devices correctly and pay more attention to the materials contained in each device, we can maximise the useful lifetime of everything we create.

This is the essence of what’s now known as the circular economy, and it’s a system that could offer your business new avenues for being both more sustainable and cost effective.

Closing the loop

The concept of a circular economy has been explored for decades by various academic groups and think tanks, but it reached broad appeal when the Ellen MacArthur Foundation partnered with McKinsey Research for their 2013 landmark report: Towards the Circular Economy: Economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition.

In the report, a new economic model is described which can decouple global economic development from finite resource consumption. By restoring and reusing products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, a circular economy:

• addresses mounting resource-related challenges for business and economies
• generates growth and creates jobs
• reduces environmental impacts, including carbon emissions.

Fast forward to the 2018 World Economic Forum, and HP joined the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and in 2019 extended their commitment to continue transitioning to a circular “make, use, reuse” approach that seeks to close the loop for their products. As a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation global commitment to address plastic waste at its source, HP now innovates to ensure the plastics they use are reusable or recyclable, while circulating plastics away from the environment and back into the economy.

From ownership to outcomes

Dovetailing with the movement towards the circular economy has been the popularity of everything-as-a-service (XaaS) models for IT investment. Driven by the switch from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud, organisations are enthusiastically adopting new models of IT investment that are less about owning assets, and more about getting an outcome.

One area that is ripe for this transition is in device management. Organisations want to equip users with the right hardware and support to get the job done, while improving end user productivity, IT efficiency, and cost predictability.

This is where HP Device as a Service (DaaS) offers a complete solution that combines hardware, support, insightful analytics, proactive management services for every stage of an organisation’s device lifecycle. Not only does it reduce the costs and complexity of owning and managing devices – it also contributes to a more sustainable operating model for businesses.

As a partner of HP and Intel®, we have assisted many organisations to reduce their waste and emissions, because the HP devices we supply are designed to be repaired. The Laptop Company is helping save around 150kg of carbon (plus manufacturing waste) for each device we repair instead of replacing with new. 

We are proudly delivering HP’s DaaS to help NZ businesses maximise the value and useful life of the devices used across their workforce. We can tailor a HP DaaS solution that enables you to drive productivity, reduce costs and complexity, all while creating a more sustainable future. 

Wellington, New Zealand – October 17, 2019 – Microsoft New Zealand has celebrated its outstanding local business partners at the 12th annual Microsoft Partner Awards. The Laptop Company was a winner in the Surface Partner category.

Mark Mayo, CEO of The Laptop Company praised staff and clients saying “We’re proud of the work the team’s been doing with Surface for our fantastic customer partners.  To receive this award two years in a row from Microsoft is an honour, and with the great new Surface devices announced this month, we’re looking forward to helping our customers do even more with their technology.”

The Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards recognise innovative partners who are demonstrating inventive use of digital technology, with the awards open to all Microsoft partners big and small. The streamlined ceremony saw the awards pivot to a greater focus on customers.

Sarah Bowden, Microsoft New Zealand One Commercial Partner Director says, “We congratulate The Laptop Company for winning in the Surface Partner category. It’s been a real pleasure learning about the achievements of this year’s entrants and seeing how they’ve used Microsoft technology to empower their own customers in so many innovative ways. The Laptop Company is an example of the fantastic work being done right here in New Zealand to unlock even greater potential.”

“Most of our 1,200-plus Partners are small and medium businesses creating massive change for Kiwi organisations right across the country. They really are punching well above their weight when it comes to digital transformation and the calibre of the Partner Awards entries this year gives me great confidence that New Zealand is set for a very bright future,” says Bowden.
​
The Partner Awards took place in a special ceremony at Auckland’s historic St-Matthew-in-the-City last night, with 56 finalists across a range of sectors.
 
The full list of 2019 winners are:
 
Winner & Highly commended list
 
New Zealand Partner of the Year (awarded globally)
Winner - Umbrellar
 
Azure Innovate Award
Winner - Aware Group – Port Otago
 
Azure Migrate Award
Winner - The Instillery – Carter Holt Harvey
 
Business Applications Award 
Winner - Datacom
 
Empowering Employees Award
Winner - Information Leadership Design – Todd Energy
 
Modern Workplace Award
Winner - Intergen – Te Wananga o Raukawa
Highly Com - DXC Eclipse – Fonterra
Highly Com - Information Leadership Design Services – Todd Energy
 
Engaging Customers Award
Winner - Intergen – Lumino the Dentists
 
Optimising Operations Award
Winner - Intergen – Les Mills
 
Transforming Products Award 
Winner - Enlighten Designs – Sitecore on Azure
Highly Com - Datacom – UDC Finance
 
Surface Partner Award
Winner - The Laptop Company
 
Channel Development Award
Winner - Exeed Ltd
 
Cloud for Good Award
Winner - Enlighten Designs – Sustainable Coastlines
Highly Com - Fusion 5 – Barnardos
Highly Com - Spark New Zealand – Oranga Tamariki
 
ENDS
 
About The Laptop Company
Founded in 1985, The Laptop Company is New Zealand's leading laptop and mobile device specialist. With locations in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin and headquarters in Wellington, we work with corporate, government and educational institutions throughout New Zealand.
 
For additional information:
Contact: Mark Mayo, CEO
Email: Mark.Mayo@laptop.co.nz
 
Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

With sustainability a core focus for business and in government, organisations need to implement new practises in their IT delivery to reduce carbon footprints and e-waste.  From cost-savings to energy conservation, going green has its benefits, but every team is different. Finding a sustainable solution that aligns with your needs is integral. Your efforts to reduce the amount of e-waste that enters the environment can help build trust in your brand both for the general public and your team members.

According to HP’s Break Down the Beast Report (2018) “Australian consumers and businesses rank plastic in oceans, landfill waste and natural environments as their top three concerns when it comes to the environment and sustainability[1].”  We expect those concerns are mirrored in New Zealand, possibly more so.

Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) is an all-encompassing solution that businesses can utilise to meet their sustainability goals. You pay per month for the use of each device, instead of purchasing outright.

Moving towards a DaaS model has immediate benefits for your company and can have a positive impact on the environment. At The Laptop Company, we’ve compiled the 3 ways deploying DaaS can reduce your impact on the planet.

Reduced Energy Consumption Across Device Fleets

Capital outlay on depreciating infrastructure is costing your business money and increasing your team’s ecological footprint.  Having to update and regularly dispose of technology every few years contributes to waste streams while consuming your capital expenditure.

With HP DaaS, Intel® and The Laptop Company monitoring services, your fleet is fully managed to give you visibility and better control over all your devices. This service allows your business to deploy energy-saving features like automatic shutdown and sleep modes across laptops and computers. DaaS also allows your business to engage the latest eco-features made available through software updates.  The Laptop Company can track your users’ CPU utilisation to help detect where energy efficiencies can be made, including where software applications are consuming excess energy and CPU time.  Not only does this reduce fleet-wide energy consumption, it also improves the performance of each device, and the user’s satisfaction and productivity.

Circular IT

A major feature of a good DaaS solution is its circular nature.  Utilising a managed service that supports your fleet from the start to the end of its lifecycle is a key to reducing waste. The on-going monitoring serve can help identify where device lifecycles can be extended for specific users, which helps eliminate the need to dispose useful, working devices prematurely.

HP DaaS reduces the number of devices that need to be recycled and offers responsible solutions for those that do. Computer and laptops in decent condition can be refurbished with new parts or software to keep them in working order.  This is all taken care of, removing the burden of managing the cycle and finding the most responsible solutions from your team.

Reduced Equipment On-Premise

Through leveraging an as-a-Service model, your organisation reduces the need to keep certain infrastructure on-premise. Eliminating the amount of technology being used can help your organisation conserve energy and move towards a greener footprint.  Cloud services use shared servers that are in constant use by multiple organisations.  By comparison, a single 500-watt server in the office can be consuming as much as 4.4 megawatts per year[2].

Similarly, switching from desktops to laptops can reduce power consumption by as much as 80%.[3]   While the majority of New Zealand electricity is renewable, this helps reduce the need for additional fossil fuel power production during peak demand periods and reduces your energy bill.

There are many benefits associated with Device-as-a-Service, accompanied by improved flexibility and scalability across your IT infrastructure. Knowing that a tailored solution can reduce your costs and waste streams is something to think about at your next IT refresh.

If you’re interested in the sustainable features of DaaS or want to learn more about how the model can benefit your business, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.

[1] HP (2018) Break Down the Beast Report
[2] Toolkit: Calculate datacentre server power usage, Teena Maddox, 2013, ZD Net.
[3] Laptop vs Power Consumption, Dan Stone, Chron.

Source: Windows Central