Lisa Nadile, writing for CIO.com gives advice on integrating Macintosh computers into existing IT infrastructures.
The article discusses in-house support, application integration and management. The one thing that she fails to address is the state of enterprise hardware support from Apple. AppleCare Enterprise Hardware support, for example, offers premium support for their enterprise hardware – XServe and XServe Raid. The standard Apple Warranty and AppleCare Protection Plan has limited on-site service. That just isn’t going to make it in the enterprise.
I must state that currently, I am not an enterprise customer. I’m railing because my Macbook is sitting in Tennesee (the national Apple Laptop Repair Depot), waiting for a main logic board. I just got off the phone with Apple Support and they indicated that it could be up to 5-7 business days for the part to become available for my repair. Wouldn’t one have common parts available, if one were in the repair business? Luckily, I don’t do anything or I couldn’t afford to be without my primary notebook for two weeks.
On the other hand our, Dell Inspiron 700m experienced a trackpad problem, and the next day, a Dell representative replaced the part on-site.