After Vista flop, Indian CIOs not open to new Windows

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, may be throwing parties for potential customers to test its Windows 7 operating system to be launched in October, but many chief information officers (CIOs) are not joining the party yet.

Reliance Communications, Asian Paints, Essar Group and some other companies will wait to see how efficient the new product of Microsoft is before shifting to it, after the Vista failed to deliver on the promise of a faster and sleeker operating system.

“I’m in no hurry to rip and replace my existing OS (operating system
),’’ said Manish Choksi, chief information officer (CIO) at Asian Paints which has 2,500 desktops and about 100 servers.

Microsoft is trying hard to convince companies and individuals that they buy Windows 7, an operating system that has in-built software for data encryption and allows data back-up onto any drive. This comes almost three years after Vista’s launch. Companies, which use software to run their operations, are prepared to wait and see how the new product performs before planning to buy it and also gauge the cost benefits of shifting to a new system.

“We want to see whether it will improve productivity,” said Sumit Chowdhry, CIO, Reliance Communications. “In the light of failed Vista, we don’t want to rush into any decision,” he added. Companies are also wary of frequent upgradation of products that cost them on training staff and disrupts the smooth functioning.

“There’s a learning fatigue if you have new OS every two years,” said Essar Group’s CIO Vijay Mehra, adding, “Our current OS, Windows XP
, is stable and we see no compelling reason to upgrade.” Essar has about 350 servers, 7,000 laptop users and 3,000 on the desktop.

At a recent event hosted by Microsoft India, 60% of the 120 CIOs present said they would take as long as a year to deploy Windows 7, while 26% said they would switch over from Windows XP to the latest OS within six months of the launch.

The Redmond giant is facing resistance even as it pushes customers to buy the new system. “For the first time, we had to push a lot of people for the early adoptive program,” said Microsoft Windows client director Ramesh Gopalkrishna. “We are determined not to make the same mistakes we did with Vista. We are working closely with partners and clients to fix problems right away,” he added.

Some are buying Microsoft’s pitch. Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant and NIIT are among those who are confident that Microsoft would not fail customers this time.

The Enterprise version of Windows 7 was launched on August 1, 2009. “It does not need a large memory footprint and we can run it on our existing hardware,” Infosys CIO Murali Krishna said, adding while Vista was a challenge, the transition to Windows 7 has been smooth so far. Application compatibility has been ensured, as there is an option in this to bundle Vista application drivers and transfer it. While Wipro believes productivity could increase 20%, NIIT is enamoured by safety features.

“The new software does not allow users to access applications without administrative privileges and this enhances security,” Pankaj Dikshit, deputy GM at NIIT, said. “Also, the software goes on a sleep mode when not in use, saving power and enhancing battery life of laptops,” he added.

Reference from