IDC OPINION

All indications suggest that Windows 7 will be a major success with business customers of all sizes as well as with consumers. Windows 7 has the ability to drive productivity and user satisfaction on its own strengths and features, but the product also benefits indirectly from the aging installed base of Windows PCs, which today continues to be dominated by Windows XP, making Windows XP emulation an especially useful capability, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that have delayed upgrading to Windows Vista.

IDC research finds that the benefits are not just qualitative in nature; small and medium-sized businesses with 250 or fewer PCs that are deploying Windows 7 are gaining more than happier users; they are lowering support costs, improving security, and making end users more productive. IDC found that four areas of performance improvement are particularly noteworthy.

IT professionals can reduce their support burden with Windows 7. When comparing Windows 7 with the previously used operating system (typically Windows XP, but in some cases, Windows Vista), our research indicates that service desk labor drops by a dramatic 65%, from 5.3 hours per PC per year to 1.9 hours per PC per year.  Similarly, PC/OS support costs declines by 55%, from 4.8 hours per PC per year to 2.2 hours per PC per year.

End users spend considerably less time dealing with malware, downtime, and reboots when using Windows 7 compared with previous Windows products. In fact, when 14 categories of common end-user activities related to keeping Windows PCs operational are considered, the savings result in 43 additional hours of productivity per year per user when using Windows 7. That amounts to in excess of one full work week per year of productive time. Even more importantly, that means that Windows 7 PCs are significantly more likely to be operating at key times of the day, week, or month, when demands are the highest.

The return on the investment to deploy Windows 7 can be recognized quickly — in fact, in as little as 7.2 months.

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Attachments:

IDC Windows 7 White Paper

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