5 Reasons to Share PCs in the Workplace

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It's very easy to do. Just set up mulitiple user accounts or a login page requiring a network user name and password and voila! You can let as many employees (or guests) get computing access from any PC in the office.

At the enterprise level this is all but ubiquitous, of course. But for smaller companies, there's still more of a "one PC for one user" culture. Maybe it's time to think big!

Here's five reasons why:

1. Take a look at how many hours your staff actually spends in the office versus in the field or on the road. Does it make sense for someone who's only in the building 10 hours a week to have a desktop assigned to them for 40 hours a week? Buddy up, where it makes sense.
2. Employees need to move around the office. They need to collaborate with colleagues, access files in a meeting, cover the phones temporarily in one area away from their own desk, etc. The days are gone when you can sit elsewhere in the building and still be productive without access to your own desktop remotely.
3. Peer Pressure. If employees understand up front that their computer is a shared tool with other colleagues, they are less likely to dabble in porn, youtube and online gaming on the sly.
4. Think outside the cubicle: Is your work space your physical space? Your work space is where you get work done and for an increasing number, that is a moving target.
5. The obvious: share PCs and you'll probably need fewer of them. Fewer to repair... Fewer to upgrade... fewer desks... chairs... etc. you get the idea. Save money.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio