Dell is offering new services designed to help businesses migrate to Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system.
At the same time, Dell officials said that their Latitude laptops, OptiPlex desktops and Precision workstations will be available with Windows 7 when the OS is released Oct. 22, and that customers can start preordering commercial systems with the operating system immediately.
Dell customers are anxious to adopt Windows 7, but are unsure about the steps to take to the make the migration, according to Don Mann, vice president and general manager of Dell Global Services.
“Some are concerned because deploying a new client platform historically requires a significant investment of time and resources,” Mann said in a statement.
Dell’s new services, announced Oct. 16, are designed to ease some of those concerns.
The company’s Windows 7 Readiness Assessment helps businesses understand what is needed and what the challenges are around a migration to the new OS. IT also helps customers develop a plan.
Dell representatives also will help businesses determine which systems are capable of running Windows 7, which applications are compatible with the OS and how the migration will impact businesses processes and IT infrastructures.
The new offerings come as Dell officials push to grow the company’s services capabilities. Dell in September announced it was buying services company Perot Systems for $3.9 billion as it looks to better compete with the likes of IBM and Hewlett-Packard in the services space.
Windows 7 is expected to be a key driving in reviving a PC market that was hard hit in the wake of the global recession. However, PC demand among consumers seems to be picking up, according to analyst firms and executives from such IT vendors as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. They also expect that many businesses that have been reluctant to refresh their aging fleets of PCs will look to do so in 2010 as the economic recovery takes hold and the qualifying of Windows 7 is completed.