Survey Reveals Companies’ Early Windows 8 Reactions and Plans

  Survey Reveals Companies’ Early Windows 8 Reactions and Plans

A recent PC Helps survey of enterprise IT leaders and managers gauges initial
                         plans for Windows 8 adoption

Business Wire

BALA CYNWYD, Penn. -- November 01, 2012

PC Helps, the premier provider of 24/7, expert, on-demand support for core
office software applications and mobile devices used every day by corporate
employees, recently completed the first in a series of Windows 8 Pulse Surveys
designed to gauge reactions and plans to migrate to Windows 8 – information
which the company needs to estimate demand for its services and to plan
resourcing and hiring. More than 500 IT leaders and managers from US-based
companies with 500 employees or more, across a range of industries, responded
to the survey and a majority of the respondents (70%) were from companies with
2,500 or more employees.

Key findings from the survey:

  * 70% of respondents indicated their organizations are already fully on, or
    in process of moving to Windows 7, suggesting that their organizational
    environments are or will soon be ready to make the next move – to Windows
    8.
  * At the time of the survey, only 38% of the respondents had hands-on
    experience with Windows 8, while 25% said they had had little to no
    exposure to it.
  * When asked for their initial reactions to Windows 8 as a platform for
    their organization and end-users, close to 45% of respondents said they
    had not seen enough of Windows 8 to form an opinion. Among the remaining
    55%, a majority indicated that their initial reactions to Windows 8 were
    generally positive.
  * Further, 25% indicated that their organizations were already anticipating
    a migration to Windows 8, with 17% of all respondents (and 30% of CIOs)
    expecting to start their migrations as soon as the product was generally
    available this fall. A full 40% expected their migrations to start by
    mid-year 2013.
  * 54% believe that Windows 8 will be a greater challenge for end-users than
    previous OS upgrades, presumably because they have seen or heard that the
    user-interface is very different from Windows 7 and prior versions,
    implying that there will be a need to support the organization’s employees
    as they move from Windows 7 to Windows 8. But again, opinions were
    generally positive about Windows 8 as a platform for their businesses.

(See infographic)

These results convey a largely balanced set of early opinions regarding the
new operating system release from Microsoft, with a fairly sizeable group of
enterprises anxious to get started, while others take a “wait and see”
position and yet other organizations not even thinking about a move to Windows
8 at the time. With the official launch of Windows 8 last week and its broader
availability now on new touch devices and computers, the ability to experience
the new OS firsthand is greatly expanded for IT leaders and the employee
groups they serve. As early adopters test Windows 8 and share their
experiences and corporate employees have the chance to get a feel for the new
devices, IT and business leaders will be in a better position to evaluate the
system for their businesses. PC Helps will continue to run this Windows 8
Pulse Survey at periodic intervals throughout the coming year.

PC Helps, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has already begun to support
enterprise early adopters of Windows 8. Over the course of 20 years in
business, PC Helps has supported thousands of Microsoft migrations across
companies large and small. In addition to its support for Windows 8, PC Helps
is currently supporting enterprise migrations to Windows 7 and Office 2010,
and also providing ongoing day-to-day support for all prior versions of
Microsoft applications, as well as over 200 other core office applications
across all types of computers and devices on the market.

About PC Helps

PC Helps, headquartered just outside Philadelphia, PA, is the premier provider
of 24/7, expert, end-user support for the core office software applications
and mobile devices used every day by corporate employees. With on-demand,
just-in-time support and training provided at the moment it’s needed, PC Helps
keeps knowledge workers on track and helps them exploit the full capabilities
of their tools. PC Helps specializes in support for Microsoft Office and other
applications and for the full range of mobile devices on the market today. For
more information, follow updates on Twitter (@PCHelps) and visit
www.pchelps.com

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Contact:

PC Helps
Jen Sweeney, 610-668-3516
Jen.Sweeney@pchelps.com
or
Racepoint Group
Evan Siff, 617-624-3250
ESiff@racepointgroup.com