Top companies slow to upgrade Windows

Confusing messages from Microsoft have made IT departments wary of committing skills to operating system upgrades and Fortune 1,000 companies are only just starting to move to 32bit Windows.

According to a Forrester Research report, The Last Windows Upgrade, only 23 per cent of computers in corporations worldwide are running a 32bit operating system, while 67 per cent are running 16bit Windows 3.x.

The migration to Windows 95 or NT is causing a surge in demand for staff to train and support users. Much of this demand, however, is for short-term contractors as no further major upgrade of PC operating systems is expected for some years.

Tom Rhinelander, author of the report, said: ?Companies have been paralysed by confusing messages.

?The competition between Microsoft?s NT and Windows 95 product groups, along with hastily delivered messages designed to position NT and Windows 95 relative to market competition like network computers, have made Microsoft?s desktop operating system plans unclear.?

The confusion has held corporate IT departments back from making a decision about possible migration to 32bit operating systems.

But according to Rhinelander, this year is set to be the year of the big push towards 32bit, and the pressure on IT support skills is high.

Another analyst at Forrester Research said: ?This may not be a huge migration in terms of training, but there are significant differences from Windows 3.x that need to be handled. Extra technical support for a few months at least is essential.?

Rhinelander said: ?While subsequent Windows versions will offer marginal functionality increases and be released as free updates, they?ll give corporations little reason to undergo again the pain of a major migration.?