CDW Reports on Vista Adoption

VERNON HILLS, Ill. -- CDW Corporation (NASDAQ: CDWC), a leading provider of technology products and services to business, government and education, today announced the findings of its first Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Tracking Poll. The survey of 761 IT decision makers indicates that 86 percent expect their organizations to adopt Windows Vista, with 20 percent of organizations deploying the new operating system within the next 12 months.

“For most organizations, the question of Windows Vista adoption is not if, but when,” said Harry J. Harczak, executive vice president of CDW Corporation. “Regardless of the time horizon for adoption, every organization needs to have a Windows Vista strategy in place to understand and address the infrastructure, enterprise application and personnel requirements associated with the market’s shift to this new operating system.”

Many organizations will or would require substantial desktop and notebook upgrades to roll out Windows Vista on their existing hardware. Fifty-one percent of respondents state that at least half of their organization’s hardware would require an upgrade to run the new operating system. This requirement is especially acute in the public sector, with 24 percent of State & Local government IT decision makers stating that 91 to 100 percent of their organization’s hardware would need either upgrading or replacing to become Vista ready.

Despite the hardware upgrade requirements, most IT decision makers are not delaying IT purchases in anticipation of Windows Vista. In fact, just 14 percent of respondents state that they are postponing purchases or IT decisions in anticipation of the new operating system. However, it is important to note that only 26 percent of survey respondents have at least a rough plan in place to structure their organization’s response to Windows Vista.

To address IT decision makers’ Vista planning requirements, CDW’s account managers will draw on more than 600 CDW technology specialists and Berbee IT engineers to offer comprehensive IT infrastructure assessment and planning services. A Microsoft Gold partner and Large Account Reseller (LAR), CDW has the expertise to address the impact of Windows Vista on practically any IT organization. Looking specifically at concerns around hardware requirements, software compatibility issues and volume licensing, CDW is already engaged in Vista planning with a number of customers.

The Windows Vista tracking poll, the first in a series of three that CDW will execute over the next six months, indicates that, on the whole, IT decision makers’ perceptions of Vista’s benefits outweigh their concerns about adopting the new operating system. Seventy-five percent of respondents cite improved security as one of the most attractive benefits of Windows Vista, while 63 percent cite improved performance. The primary concern about implementation, first-version bugs, was cited by 52 percent of the respondents, with all other concerns cited by less than 40 percent of the respondents.

Twenty-one percent of survey respondents are currently using or evaluating a Windows Vista pre-release version. Of those having direct experience with the software, just 9 percent have formed a somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion about Windows Vista. Fully 70 percent of users/evaluators express somewhat favorable (56 percent) or very favorable (14 percent) impressions.

CDW Corp.