MSFT Makes WIndows 7 TCO Claim

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Microsoft says early corporate adopters of Windows 7 are already saving money due to the new system’s low total cost of ownership (TCO).

Leveraging the results of a Microsoft-sponsored (NASDAQ: MSFT) survey conducted by Forrester Research, and several new case studies describing successful early adopters’ experiences, the software giant hopes to jump start volume purchases earlier than they might otherwise.

Both are tried-and-true sales tools for tech marketing, and Microsoft is no exception. The question is whether they will help spark early adoption among volume customers.

“Deployments are happening right now and your company can begin deployment as well! Several of our early adopters are already having great success with Windows 7,” Gavriella Schuster, a Microsoft spokesperson, said in a post on the Windows 7 team blogon Monday.

The post started out with a pitch surrounding three customers being highlighted as veritable poster children for lower TCO spawned by Windows 7 adoption.

Schuster touted three early adopters: Baker Tilly, a U.K.-based professional services firm with 2,200 users, the City of Miami’s local government with 2,235 users, and Getronics, an IT services company in the Netherlands with 14,300 users.

“Direct cost savings of IT labor dedicated to PC management are expected to be in the range of $89 to160 per PC annually. That means IT Pros are saving up to two hours per desktop annually,” Schuster’s post said. “Overall, the … savings per PC annually represents reduction of IT labor costs ranging from a 10-20 percent she added.

Desktop optimization & managing virtual PC images

Likewise, Microsoft’s Forrester survey found that IT shops’ economical and technological circumstances are ripe for Windows 7, and for the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), a suite of client management and deployment tools sold as a separate add-on. MDOP also contains Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) for managing virtual PC images.

The survey results, however, are fairly non-specific and predictable.

For instance, of the 318 C-level IT executives interviewed for the survey, 87 percent of the companies said that “controlling costs is a critically or very important business priority,” the post said. Likewise, 84 percent said that “improving employee productivity is a critically or very important business priority.”

A beta of MDOP 2009 R2 is set to begin in late October, the post continued. But the initial version of the MED-V virtualization tools will only support Windows Server 2008 R2. Support for MED-V on Windows 7 will come in the first calendar quarter of next year.

Windows 7 is set to commercially launch on October 22.

On September 1, Microsoft opened the way for volume purchasersthat don’t already have a Software Assurance contract via its Volume License Resellers channel to get Windows 7 at up to a 15 percent discount.

On August 7, Microsoft made Windows 7 available to Volume Licensors who already have a Software Assurance contract.

Corporate adoption of Windows Vista — even after two service packs (SP) — has never reallyquite taken off.

A ScriptLogic survey released in late July, found that some 40 percentof corporate users who had been sitting on the fence regarding Vista, will move to Windows 7 by the end of next year,

Part of that may also have to do with encouragement provided them by Gartner in May, when that research firm urged users who hadn’t already moved to Vista to wait and instead skipfrom Windows XP to Windows 7.

Article courtesy of InternetNews.com.