Most multinationals in no hurry to deploy Windows 7

More than a third of multinationals have no plans for Windows 7 rollouts

Most multinational companies plan to wait at least a year before rolling out Windows 7, according to a survey conducted by marketing firm eMedia on behalf of application migration vendor ChangeBASE AOK.

Some 59 per cent of respondents said they had no plans to deploy Windows 7 in the next 12 months, leaving 41 per cent stating that they intend to roll out the operating system before November 2010.

The most cited reason for not making the change was application compatibility, with two-thirds (66 per cent) of those polled saying this was their biggest challenge. Second was "cannot justify investment" (40 per cent), with hardware compatibility next at 39 per cent.

The key benefit anticipated by those deploying Windows 7 was increased functionality (42 per cent), followed by increased security and compliance (41 per cent), and a better look and feel (31 per cent).

The radio button/check box list-based web survey received 163 replies from senior IT decision makers in large global firms.

A recent worldwide survey of both enterprise and SMB firms from Forrester Research [Enterprise And SMB Hardware Survey, North America And Europe, Q3 2009], showed only seven per cent of UK organisations planning a move in the next 12 months, with two-thirds planning to migrate eventually.