The Hidden Cost of Laptop Ownership

After these last two years we’ve all learned how important it is for businesses to be able to provide employees with mobile computing devices. In the past, laptops were reserved for “C Suite”, Senior Managers and traveling sales executives. But all of that changed with the pandemic.

During these times, many organizations rushed out and bought cheap laptops from high street vendors and e-commerce sites without necessarily looking at the long-term operating costs. The trouble with purchasing computing assets with an organization’s capital budget or ( CAPEX) is the age-old desire to “sweat” assets beyond their useful life.

“Let’s not replace it yet,
we can get another year out of that 

“We only replaced that
equipment a couple of years ago”

These are phrases heard many a time from a Finance Director to an IT Manager when discussing the refresh of IT equipment and IT budgets.

In InnoVent’s experience, the ideal operating life of a portable computer is three years since after that the hidden costs of ownership and laptop failure rates increase and the issues presented become more painful and disruptive for both computer users and IT departments

Top Laptop Failures

The primary failure of portable computers is the laptop battery. On average, a laptop battery has a lifespan of between two and four years (around 1,000 full charges). The total lifespan depends on the battery type, how you treat your computer, and how often you use your laptop. With many users leaving their laptops either docked or on charge 7 days a week, it is easy to see how most laptop batteries will have degraded or failed on or around their third birthday.

The second failure in our experience is the “internal fan assembly”. Over a three-year period the laptop builds up large deposits of dirt and dust in the fan assembly, making fan failure the second most recorded failure on three-year-old portable assets.

The third and fourth issues recorded by our engineers on portable equipment older than three years are “white spots” and “shading” on LCD laptop screens and shiny or faded keyboards and mouse trackpads. Although often still working,  the laptop will be showing signs it’s coming to the end of its primary operating life, time for an upgrade, time to be reconditioned.

Replacement Costs

The problem with these failures isn’t just the direct repair costs, it’s the downtime and disruption it causes, especially for remote workers reliant on their laptops.

The typical cost to replace a laptop battery, with the courier costs to retrieve and courier back to a home worker is £90, which averages 10% of the original purchase cost of a laptop. The cost to replace a faulty or worn fan assembly can often cost between £100 and £150 inclusive of labour and courier costs, so 15% of the capital cost. These two common failures can increase the cost of owning a laptop by a staggering 25%, a cost that could be avoided by refreshing assets on or around  their third birthday.

InnoVent encourages our clients to subscribe for the use (through a  lease) of their new laptop equipment over a three-year period, with equipment being purchased with a three-year manufacturer’s warranty for peace of mind. InnoVent charges a proportion of the capital cost to use laptops over a three period, and once returned at the end of the subscription InnoVent will recondition the laptops for re-use as “2^nd Life IT” Laptops.

Based on our 15 years’ experience our clients typically save in excess of 25% on new laptops’ subscription costs compared to a capital purchase cost  and over 40% on the cost of  our 2^nd Life laptops compared to new equipment costs.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of leasing your IT equipment, contact us here.