Clearing out my desk : How to sell/ Why buy Vista
I am a marketing collateral hoarder. I admit it. But it really comes in handy when I need an idea and I know I can find it in the pile of ‘ideas’ that sit on my desk. Most of the hard copies have been replaced by RSS feeds but there’s still a fair bit laying around that I’ve found as I’ve started to tidy up my desk.
Hopefully, you won’t mind me sharing some of it with you; and if you do, well… look away now. 
Let’s start with Vista (as it’s in the title).
Section 1: The statistics.
WARNING: Use with care, frequent use of big numbers can cause mental blindness and can seriously risk your health.
- Analyst firm IDC estimates that Microsoft’s Partners in Europe will clock up in excess of 32 billion Euros this year from sales associated with Windows Vista.
- For every pound Microsoft earns in the UK on sales of Vista, its Partners will make £7.50.
- IDC predicts that Windows Vista will be installed on more that 100 million computers worldwide.
- The same guys have said that Windows Vista-related employment will account for more than one million IT jobs across the biggest European national markets. This means that Windows Vista will account for more than 20 per cent of the total number of IT jobs across the continent as a whole.
- More than 60 million licenses of Windows Vista have been sold (as of June 2007), with 42 million PCs covered by volume licensing.*
- Security is one of the key drivers for people moving to Windows Vista and 50 per cent of IT managers moving to it agree.
- Windows Vista revealed total cost of ownership savings are estimated at $605 per laptop per year, with related technologies and best practices implemented. This is a saving of 14% over Windows XP (GCR Custom Research adn Wipro Technologies).
- Vista drivers are being certified at a rate of 1,600 every month.
Section 2: The Opportunities.
This is where the real science happens. Statistics are impressive but why should you really be looking at Vista? Why is a customer going to want to upgrade and why are you going to want to support it when XP has been doing the job just fine thank you very much…?
I found some quotes from Partners who have made Vista work for them and their clients. These guys have put in the hard work and focused on solving problems rather than just stick it in and cope with the changes:
“In terms of adoption, most Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 customers are seeking to implement Windows Vista at the same time. What is great to see is that customers are using their Vista deployments to resolve any outstanding technical issues they might face and rather than just an upgrade, they are using it to completely revolutionise their technical infrastructure. We don’t think that Windows Vista is difficult to sell; it’s just that the projects are very different.”
Alun Rogers, Technical Director, Risual (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)
“Whenever we’re talking about an upgrade or roll-out to a customer, we will always offer familiarisation training with Windows Vista or Office 2007. This training is vital to the success of the implementation and will ensure a more rapid adoption. If customers buy Windows Vista without training, they won’t get all the benefits they are looking for. In educating customers, you can unlock any reservations about Windows Vista, and combat any perception that Windows XP is good enough.”
Adrian Barkey (he’s a very nice man), Director, EJC IT (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)
“We are a desktop deployment Partner. We are utilising the resources provided via the Microsoft Partner Programme to make the deployment of Windows Vista easier for our customers. We’ve found that numerous organisations have not implemented desktop deployment solutions, and desktop automation is a project in its own right whether you are moving to Windows Vista or not.”
Peter Mercieca, BDM, Silversands (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)
“There’s a greater focus and messaging around Software-Plus-Services that’s coming from Microsoft, and this is creating a new wave of interest around the interoperability of the UC technologies, Windows Vista, and the 2007 Microsoft Office System.”
Ciaran Cosgrave, Chief Technology Officer, Netstore (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)
Section 3: Tools
Unified Communications (UC) Training - Gartner predicts 40% of companies will complete the convergence of their entire voice and data networks onto a single network by 2010, and 80% of companies will integrate communications (voice/messaging) into some business applications or processes in the same time. Think about businesses using UC, Vista, Office, and Server, and you get choice. www.uclearningpaths.com
Windows Vista tools and resources - access a range of sales and deployment resources including toolkits and hardware assessments as well as newsgroups and relevant blogs: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/vista
*but how many were downgraded to Windows XP?