ViewSonic is encouraging its resellers to highlight the problems of using old monitors to end users following new research that has revealed the damaging effects that outdated equipment is having on office workers.
The study, commissioned by ViewSonic and carried out by Tickbox.net, an independent research organisation, surveyed over 2,700 office workers from the UK, France and Germany. The research revealed that old and poor IT equipment was damaging the health, productivity and motivation of as many as two out of every five European office workers.
More than a third (38.8 per cent) of office workers surveyed used monitors that are at least three years old; 34 per cent of users of old monitors are more likely to take a week or more of sick leave; and 75 per cent believed that new equipment could help increase their productivity.
In particular, 60 per cent of those surveyed claimed to have suffered problems including headaches and eye fatigue.
Mel Taylor, ViewSonic's vice president of marketing, told CRN: "Ideally monitors should be updated every three to five years. Most office workers spend the majority of their day looking at their screen and our research shows that old displays can cause eye strain, fatigue, and headaches. If a carpenter had a faulty or old saw he would get a new one but the poor old office worker has to put up with an old screen."
To create more awareness of these problems, ViewSonic has set up a website called www.monitorvictims.com and is about to launch a campaign called 'Demand a Viewsonic'.
"Every few months monitor vendors are bringing out faster, better monitors with more features, but really the only thing resellers compete on is price. We decided that rather than just spend all our marketing money on price, we thought we'd give something back to the channel and conducted this research," said Taylor.
"Resellers have now got a different story to talk to customers about rather than just price. Resellers can advise and explain to customers why they need to update their monitors by pointing out the health and productivity issues that our research has highlighted," added Taylor.
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