Need some advice: How to convince a department to move from MacOS to Windows

[Lanrick]

Hello,

 

I work at a medium-sized financial institution with around 550 employees. I am a network technician in our IT department at that company. We are very integrated with Microsoft Azure products and about 95% of our clients are either Windows machines or thin clients connected to Windows VDI servers. The rest of the clients are MacOS users mainly in our Marketing Department. (there are a few for IT for either Software Development or testing our website (don't need to worry about those machines)). How can we, as an IT Department convince the marketing department to switch to Windows machines? Even our CIO is struggling to convince them. Are we going into a losing battle here?

Edited July 16, 2023 by Lanrick
Fixed Grammer

[igormp]

1- Is it really needed to switch to windows? If not, then I'd argue to just leave them using their Mac devices anyway.

2- In case it's really needed, then there should be no need to "convince" then, just straight out set a deadline for the migration and that'd be it.

[RokinAmerica]

In our company, the IT department determines what we get in tech, PCs, phones, etc. If we want something not mainstream for our business, we than ask for something different to handle that aspect, but only what we need to make it feasible (I get what I need, I just need to have a need and justify it). But our different departments do not just blanket overrule the one department setup to handle, well, IT stuff.

 

The issue you have is someone higher up needs to have the "come to God" speech and let the marketing department know what is what. Until that happens, nothing will really change.

[Akolyte]

I work for a consultancy, and we all have MacBooks. Even though our IT department hates it, the number of Mac converts is growing.   They probably don't care about security or how easy it is for you to manage (in fact, they passively want to make it even more difficult), so you can't use security or management arguments to convince them. 

 

There will likely be a compromise to develop new standards and procedures regarding how you provision and manage their devices.  One of the reasons they like MacOS may be because they have more autonomy; they aren't restricted to a sluggish, latency-bound VDI or forced to have some invasive management software on their work machine. 

 

As one of these people who use a Mac, I think the conversation points need to change: 

 

The questions you should ask are:

• What software do you use? 
• Why is it essential for you to use a Mac? 
• What are the barriers to switching to Windows? 

Once you find these out, develop policies to accommodate them - you want the business to make revenue, after all, and not drive this team away.  

 

If they still refuse to switch, then you'll need to get executive sponsorship to perform a complete migration of the business's corporate IT management.  That would permit you to say, "Hey, this is a business project; we must migrate you by X date. Can you work with us so we can make it easy for you?"

 

Also, glad you're leaving the software engineers alone - if I got told I was being migrated to an Azure VDI, I'd immediately find a new position.  

[StriderCRB]

Leave them be. Don't be that IT guy. Learn to exist in a mixed environment. The days of treating Mac users like second class citizens is like 20 years ago. 

[LogicalDrm]

If their main software is only or mostly on Macs, you don't. You would be hindering performance.

 

If all could be done in Windows, then you need leaders to make decision to move whole company to Windows. Then when they eventually come to ask for replacement hardware, Macs aren't option to be picked.

[Amp9k]

You don't really mention any reason for switching to windows?

When I started as a sysadmin, I hated on mac too. But now, I can't imagine working on a thinkpad again.

 

Do they get the job done? Do they enjoy using their machines? If yes to both of those, then why would you change that?

[Xiee]

Used to be an IT supervisor for a fairly small company (around 120 people). 

We primarily used only Windows due to budget restraints. Those who wanted to use Macs bought their own machines to work, but we had to approve it for security concerns.

[WildCAt]

On 7/16/2023 at 3:54 AM, Lanrick said:

How can we, as an IT Department convince the marketing department to switch to Windows machines?

...Why? Do you have any reason? If it's just expensive/inconvenient to maintain Macs, then you just enforce the policy... But no one would like that. I'm a developer and I'm happy that I am allowed to work on whatever OS/PC I'm comfortable working with (if it's compliant with security and corporate policies). I've started with Windows, hated it, then I've been running Linux for over a year, but when I was unable to continue properly working on a project using Linux (software incompatibility), I've switched to Mac.

If I'd be forced to use Windows again - I'd most likely just quit

You either have a strong reasons to make everyone use Windows, or you don't mess with people and let them work.