Deploy/Adopt: Realizing Value

NYT Maps the Forest of Services Across Top Tech Companies, But Fails To See The Trees

cmross — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:35:54 GMT

Today’s NY Times has an article in the Bits section that attempts to define the services available from Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo across a wide swatch of important

technologies. It’s a curious matrix, and points out the risk of ambiguity charts like this present, limiting their effectiveness. Let’s look at several of the categories and try to make sense of what (if anything) this chart actually is telling us.

Video/Voice/IM Chat. Unified communications are only as good as their ability to integrate with what you are actually doing. Screen sharing and collaboration are critical elementshere, with Microsoft leading the way in both consumer and enterprise offerings.

Mobile Hardware, OS, App Store and Applications. One could make the case for Microsoft being a grey circle here.

Music Store. Overlooked Google’s partnerships with MySpace and LaLa

Office Suite. The Office Suite area is solidly owned by Microsoft; while there market share will see some decline as the Google offerings mature, to say they are competing at this point is like calling a race between a bicycle and a stock car.

Video Content. A throwaway metric, but ok. Not sure what the Microsoft offering is that they’re referring to, as MSN Soapbox is dead.

News. I would put a grey circle here for Google, as they aggregate news from various sources. Microsoft and Yahoo produce content.

Social Network. The author loses major credibility here by overlooking Microsoft’s Live platform (Spaces, Messenger, etc.) which has millions of active subscribers and is arguably of greater significance than, say, Google’s Orkut.

Online Retail. Google Checkout maybe? Selling a phone online does not an online retail presence make. On the other hand, Microsoft has been selling software (games, Office suites), hardware and services to consumers online for years.

My point in walking through the chart is this: anyone can show you a chart with a bunch of dots on it. What matters is how you interpret the relevance of the categories and the impact of the solutions provided by the vendors in those categories.

Deploying software is easy, but realizing value can be hard. Why technology adoption matters. Part 1

cmross — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:33:59 GMT

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get” Warren Buffett

In my career I’ve had the opportunity to witness a disturbing trend emerge of technology investments being orphaned within the enterprise post purchase or licensing. In too many instances, it becomes “shelfware” before the check can be cashed by the vendor/consultant, and then proceeds to gather dust for months, if not years.

What is inarguably worse are instances wherein expenses are incurred to deploy the technology, perhaps even offering some level of training, but mostly there is no measurable, positive impact to the business. There is no realization of value. Sure, there may be successful, isolated pilots that department heads, IT and even the vendor/consultant will pronounce as the justification. But how often has the total investment been recouped in ways that matter to the organization? And what does that do to the credibility of IT within the organization, when the ROI can’t be measured or proves to be negligible?

The fact of the matter is this: deploying technology without a plan for adopting the technology to drive the business forward is a luxury that no business can afford . Often, the potential is there for lower TCO, increased productivity, positive ROI and other metrics that define success. But I would estimate that 100s of millions of dollars are wasted, a result of poorly thought-out purchasing decisions (often based on “fud”, soft business justification, or just not having a plan for actually using the technology in ways that address company needs.

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to host a discussion on deploy/adopt about ways companies can maximize the return on their technology investments, by thoughtfully planning out the last-mile of that purchase: adoption.

Defining Adoption

When we talk about “technology adoption”, what do we mean? What exactly does ‘adoption’ suggest, in the context of IT investments? Now, deployment is relatively easier to define – ‘bits on the device’ works well enough (though virtualization technologies has begun to make even that statement somewhat constraining). But in general most would agree that ‘to deploy’ something gives the ability to actually use it.

So then what does it mean to adopt a technology solution? And, does it really matter? Is deployment enough or synonymous with adoption?

The Encarta dictionary describes adopt this way:

choose and decide to use something: to take up something such as a plan, idea, cause, or practice and use or follow it

choose something as requirement: to officially select something as a requirement

We see in these definitions that adoption implies making a choice - a conscious decision is being made to choose something other something else. Think about how we ‘adopt’ things in life, whether it is a sport team, philosophy or animal. Why do we do this? Because a value has been associated, by ourselves or others, and we’re acknowledging that value in how we then act towards or interact that object.

That seems simple enough to apply to business in general and technology solutions specifically, right? Then, can an enterprise deploy a technology solution without adopting it? Most assuredly – it’s an unfortunate situation many customers are facing now, justifying long-term service and sales contracts, when the technology and/or solution has yet to demonstrate measurable value back to the organization. But can you adopt something without deploying it? No. In the vernacular of social networks you can “be a fan” of a technology solution without actually deploying it, but that relationship can be both shallow and fleeting.

We can now say that the act of a customer deploying a technology solution merely makes the applications, servers and services available to the enterprise. But the adoption indicates that all or parts of the system have achieved a level of value and appreciation within the company; they’ve become integral to their processes, their recipe for success. And that realization of value is measurable using the metrics that the company itself deems relevant to their bottom line (satisfaction of employees and/or customers, productivity, lower costs, higher sales).

So then, in discussing technology adoption, can we break this down into pieces that are easier to quantify? I think we can, and in my next article on the subject of technology adoption, we will do just that.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Is the adoption of technology investments important, or does the purchase or installation/deployment good enough? And what roles do the vendor/consultant, IT department, business units and sponsoring executives play in insuring a fruitful experience?

Free Agency: Chris Has Left The Microsoft Building

cmross — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:22:22 GMT

Note: on doing a search for “deploy adopt” I noticed that Microsoft had not decommissioned my blog. Interesting.

So, I’m reposting the entry from my personal blog that explains why this one won’t be seeing any updates :)

If you are interested in discussion on deployment and adoption of technology, please consider my new blog, DeployAdopt. You can also contact me directly via @cmross on twitter.

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As in past years, I plan to reflect on all of 2009 in early January and blog about my resolutions for the coming year. But there’s a big pink elephant in my virtual living room that everyone keeps staring at and wanting to know where it came from. Or a better analogy is that my sofa is missing and I don’t seem to be making a big deal of how, why or when it will be replaced.

That comfy couch was Microsoft, and I no longer work for the company.

It’s been a little over a month now, leaving Redmond and flying back to Chicago with both excitement and a bit of sadness. For almost 8 1/2 years I’ve carried a blue badge for the company, doing my best to support enterprise customers, business partners and our field sales team. And I’m proud to say that I was really good at it. When I joined, it was to sell Windows and Office to companies in the Midwest and evangelize about our product stack. But the ‘fixer’ in me didn’t stay dormant long, and it wasn’t long before our general manager tapped me to think about a strategy for increasing the rate of “deployment” (i.e., the installing of our products). A year later, I was asked to create a job description for “that deployment stuff you do”, and a brand new field role Desktop Deployment Specialists was created. That resourcing ‘fixed’, I packed up the family and headed to Redmond to be a bull in a china shop program manage Microsoft Office deployment marketing in the US, then worldwide. Along the way, some great programs were developed, partnerships established, and many colleagues stepped up and became true Rock Stars in their own right.

For family reasons however, I needed to get the family back to the Chicago area. To my fortune, the US had created a role they wanted me to take on, leading this now titled “Deployment Initiative” for our sales organization and the 4,000+ customers it represents. Wow. I loved working with our Office team, and in hindsight perhaps should have gone back to living in 2 cities, but whatever. The last 2 years were wrought with a lot of challenges, but some great successes. What I valued most was the camaraderie I had with everyone that felt a passion and/or conviction for helping our customers and partners. Even reflecting upon the experience now, I have to smile – it’s been a great run.

But 2009 has not been kind to any industry (except, maybe gun manufacturers, alcoholic beverages and TMZ). And I learned early in the year that my position, while needful, was at risk of being eliminated in difference to getting more salespeople in the field. So I had a choice: do I abandon ship to save my paycheck or continue to do what I believe in and hope for the best. The die was cast as I chose the latter, culminating in that November call (while at a customer conference, natch) that brings me to writing this blog that’s surprisingly longer than what I thought it would be….

How are you doing? It may be hard to understand, but I haven’t felt this good in a very long time about my career and my personal life. When I found out that I had almost 7 weeks of vacation being cashed out, it hit me how much time I had missed out on enjoying my family and friends. My first task was to try and rebalance things, and that’s what I have focused on. Being able to watch Phoebe learn to walk, Ian excel at basketball (and basically everything else he does, including growth), Zachary mature into a little man and Olivia solidify my belief that fathers are powerless to the whims of their daughters is a great thing.

Ok. But what are you going to do next? Good question. I have no idea! Ok, at the risk of causing my mom (hi mom!) and wife to freak out, I do have some ideas – keep in mind I’ve been aware of this fork in the road for a while. There are basically 3 options on the table that I’m considering:

Start my own business. That was my intentions for 2012 (yes, that specific), to leave the corporate payroll and build up a consulting & development practice. The question is whether to make that leap now, taking advantage of the experiences and relationships I’ve built over the past 20+ years of writing code, managing IT shops, selling software and being a strategic leader.
Join another company. I’ve been humbled by the number of individuals that have reached out to explore working together. A couple of them are extremely compelling, either because of the relationships I have with the individuals or the technologies involved. In some respects, I think the challenge of helping another company succeed for a few years would be a good stepping stone to hanging out my own shingle.
Go back to Microsoft. At times, it’s all about timing. There are a few groups and individuals I would relish the chance to work with, and would head back to the mothership to do so. That’s all I’ll say about that, because they know who they are :)

Good, you’ve got a plan. Anything I can do? Another positive that has come out of this experience is a) an increase in my twitter followers, and b) renewing of some good friendships. I really appreciate all of the kind words and offers of support and reference. Please keep them coming! I’ve put December 21st on the calendar as the date by which I’ll make a decision what direction I’d like to go, and will most likely blog about that too. I hope that, whatever direction that takes me, I’ll have the chance to work and commune with many of you again.

In the meantime, I’ll be spending cycles consulting, blogging about technology on the re-christened deploy/adopt, supporting my church in revamping their online presence, revamping our cooking website into a network of sites and creating a social network for the little town I call home. It’s a good busy, but balanced. The technologist in me is happy, the family is happy, and I’m excited about what lays ahead.

Life is good.

Updated DDPS Offerings

cmross — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:25:02 GMT

Microsoft provides additional services and benefits to customers with Software Assurance. These benefits include Packaged Service Benefits which enable customers to use their allocated days to engage MCS and/or certified Partners to deliver services related to desktop deployment (DDPS), business value planning (BVPS), SharePoint deployment (SDPS) and Exchange deployment (EDPS).

Desktop Deployment Planning Services the culmination of best practices demonstrated by MCS and Partners in programmatically addressing deployment planning and pilot, has been a tremendous benefit to our customers and the service organizations that support them.

Today, I’m pleased to announce that Desktop Deployment Planning Services is entering a new era of flexibility, and now incorporates many of the additional services asked for. The chart below describes the richer suite of planning services available to customers.

And, the exception process has been streamlined, to a review process committed to our customers, the Partner community and Office deployment.

As a customer, you can contact your preferred Partner or Microsoft account manager to learn more about Software Assurance benefits and DDPS specifically.

Partners can find out more information on the Microsoft Partner portal.

Webcast: Best Practices for Windows 7 Migrations Using MDOP

cmross — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:23:31 GMT

I've known Liz Eversoll for many years, and am very pleased to see that she is presenting on this topic. Well worth your time if you are looking for best practices in leveraging Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for your Windows 7 migration.

Best Practices for Windows 7 Migrations Using Microsoft Application Virtualization

Oct 26, 2009
12:00 p.m. Eastern / 9:00 a.m. Pacific
Duration: 60 Minutes

You need to increase the manageability of your IT infrastructure and boost employee productivity, all while reducing help desk costs. Join us to hear firsthand how CDW, a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government and education, overcame those same challenges in its organization.

Join us for an interactive 1-hour webcast and discover how to:

Separate applications from the OS to deliver application upgrades quickly and without conflicts with other applications
Save time on application testing, packaging and deployment by allocating resources to your higher-priority projects
Deploy new desktops 25% faster with 70% in cost savings using your pre-existing hardware

Find out more about CDW's best practices migrating from Windows Vista to Windows 7 and how you can streamline application delivery and desktop manageability.

Also, bring your questions for our panel of experts to address during a live Q&A following the presentation!

REGISTER TODAY >>

Liz Eversoll
Vice President of the Microsoft Practice
CDW

Michael Van Cleave
Technical Specialist
CDW

Joseph E. Maglitta
Editorial Director and Market Expert
Ziff Davis Enterprise

eSeminars Information
Copyright 2009 Ziff Davis Enterprise All Rights Reserved.
Ziff Davis Enterprise, 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016

The Productivity Hub is now live!

cmross — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:26:00 GMT

I mentioned this during my session at ILTA this week, and the response has been overwhelming. Suzanne has provided more information below, as well as a link for downloading.

What is the Productivity Hub?

The Productivity Hub is a SharePoint Server 2007 site collection. It comes packed with over 300 pieces of content, including videos, documents and PowerPoint slides. Customers may then create a learning community within their firewall.

The Hub uses SharePoint Server’s social networking features to engage end users. It also offers training for “coaches”, or power users internal to each customer. Coaches reduce the burden on training and helpdesk staff by adding another level of support.

The Productivity blog is another strategy to build a daily customer connection. Blog posts from the Crabby Office Lady, product managers, the field, and our learning partners feeds directly into the customer’s Hub through the included RSS feed.

The Hub pilot has reached over 100 customers around the world. During the pilot, one customer remarked, “We owe you a debt of gratitude,” and another said they weren’t allowed to move forward with deployment until they installed the Hub.

Customer benefits:

•Helps reduce costs: Streamlines training and helps reduce training overhead. Acts as a tool for training departments and IT.

•Multiple learning paths: Includes learning roadmaps, coaches, forums, searchable content and more.

•Helps increase productivity: Accelerates 2007 Office system adoption through a learning community.

•Drives adoption: Ongoing access to training enables deeper use and helps create new power users.

•Ignites collaboration: Creates customer evangelists through the coach program.

•Proof of concept: Provides a vision for collaborative learning – leading to collaborative work.

Hub Download link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=277fefca-d62f-41bc-943d-79002254cfee

Going through all of the business cards ...

cmross — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:30:00 GMT

Going through all of the business cards gathered throughout the week of WPC 09. I hope everyone heeds my caution and waits to email me until August - that way I have the time to get through everything that's come in this past week as well as the week of our sales conference (MGX) and technical conference (TechReady).

Deployment Services Roundtable at WPC

cmross — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:11:10 GMT

I will be part of an expert panel for desktop deployment at WPC, along with several of Microsoft’s senior marketing representatives and a few partners with DDPS certification. This would be the right audience for you to share feedback on utilizing your customers Packaged Service Days for Desktop Deployment Planning Services, Business Value Planning Services, etc.

Hope to see you there!

A New Laptop Hunters Video – Why I Like Them

cmross — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:13:14 GMT

Another good ad pointing out the obvious. It’s been interesting reading the blogs and comments, which are mostly positive. What surprises me is how well the ads portray the decisions every consumer has to make: I have specific needs and a finite budget, how can I get the most for my money? Enjoy!

Upgrading from Win7 Beta

cmross — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:08:42 GMT

Recent blog articles have discussed whether or not you can upgrade from the Win7 Beta, including one today from ZDNet pointing this out. In fact, our own Windows 7 Engineering blog offers a workaround to this, but I highly suggest that Enterprise IT understand that, while it’s a cool hack, it’s a hack nonetheless better left to hobbyists. What I have encouraged customers, our Partners and field teams on is the following:

· Do encourage your customers to pilot Win7 with a cross-section of their users. For the Beta, I would suggest 0.5% (1 out of 200 desktops), especially if they have decided to skip Vista.

· Do raise their awareness to the fact that this is still beta code. Frequent backups and/or redirection will ensure a good user experience should something go poorly.

· Don’t imply that they won’t have to reinstall with the RTM release. If this is a concern of your customer, draw them into a discussion about their deployment plans and infrastructure optimization.

We all want you to have a great pilot experience with Windows 7. But, it is still a pilot – don’t let your enthusiasm and anticipation cloud your judgment as to what’s best for your end users (and your sanity!)

Free Office 2007 Deployment Training Available

cmross — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:06:19 GMT

Our Office marketing team continues to develop ways to help IT get relevant training in this “new economy”. If you’ve not taken advantage of a Microsoft Office 2007 Labcast before, what are you waiting for? They use a virtual lab to get you the experience you’re seeking around deploying Office 2007, server management tools and application compatibility. Register today. Good stuff!

Join the Desktop Deployment: Planning, Deploying and Managing Office 2007 Labcast series to learn about new tools and technologies to deploy the 2007 Microsoft® Office system. During these half day events you will receive practical technical information and proven techniques to help simply your 2007 Office deployment. The labcast provides a hands-on virtual lab environment where you can perform the tasks yourself with step-by-step guidance from Microsoft professionals, giving you experience-based knowledge on how to deploy the 2007 Office system. Click here for more information about the 2007 Office labcast series.

Labcast sessions :

Deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office system with the Deployment Workbench

o Add the 2007 Office system to the Deployment Workbench

o Perform multi-language integration

o Learn about the Office Customization Tool (OCT)

o Use SMS 2003 for 2007 Office system deployment

Click on the date to register

Deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office system with the Deployment Workbench

3/23/2009 8:30 AM CST

4/06/2009 1:00 PM CST

4/20/2009 8:30 AM PST

5/04/2009 1:00 PM PST

5/18/2009 8:30 AM CST

6/01/2009 1:00 PM CST

6/15/2009 8:30 AM PST

6/29/2009 1:00 PM PST

Assessing Application Compatibility and Managing Your Office Clients with Group Policy labcast

· 2007 Microsoft Office system Planning and Migration Tools: Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM)

o Install and configure OMPM

o Perform a scan on a user system

o Convert documents with no issues to the new file formats

· Managing the 2007 Microsoft Office system with Group Policy

o Import the new Group Policy Administrative Templates for the 2007 Office release

o Use Group Policy to configure the Default File Save options in the 2007 Office release

o Use Group Policy to configure the Default File Save options for Office 2003 (to support a mixed Office environment)

Click on the date to register

Assessing Application Compatibility and Managing Your Office Clients with Group Policy labcast

3/23/2009 1:00 PM CST

4/06/2009 8:30 AM CST

4/20/2009 1:00 PM PST

5/04/2009 8:30 AM PST

5/18/2009 1:00 PM CST

6/01/2009 8:30 AM CST

6/15/2009 1:00 PM PST

6/29/2009 8:30 AM PST

© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft is a registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Gartner: Don't Wait for Windows 7 SP1

cmross — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:17:25 GMT

Michael Silver has come out with an analysis that already has the blogsphere buzzing with even more excitement about Windows 7.

In it, he proclaims that “The first Service Pack for Windows 7 is not necessary for the operating system's stability and security readiness.” He also states what I have found in talking about Windows 7 with our customers, and that is that many of you may not be prepared to deploy today. That is something we are very focused on changing, through our focus on The Optimized Desktop.

In his view, it will take customers 12-18 months to prepare for the OS, which would make SP1 the release they will deploy. I don’t agree with his timeline assertion, as I believe that we can significantly decrease that planning and piloting time if we are diligent in taking action now:

It’s about desktop optimization and the benefits it returns to the business. As good as Windows 7 RTM will be, we know that it’s not about the OS alone. Know the IT benefits (compatibility, performance, security) and ROI (energy savings, virtualization) and factor those into your decisions.

Pilot Windows 7. Assess your hardware profile and PC refresh plans against the hardware requirements for Vista/Win7. If you own the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), ask your Microsoft account team or Partner for assistance in piloting MED-V and APP-V as ways to decrease deployment and management costs while addressing compatibility concerncs.

Technorati Tags: Gartner,Windows 7,MDOP,MED-Vista,APP-V

http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol5/article2/article2.html

See you at WPC09

cmross — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:08:47 GMT

I’ll tell you right now. I love our Partner community! That’s right. When I look at the success our customers have in deploying and managing our software platforms, and how they’ve adopted it through solutions and out-of-the-box capabilities I know that many times Partners make the difference between just licensing software and realizing value. So I always look forward to WPC as a way to meet up with a lot of great Partners that I frequently only know through emails and conference calls :)

If you are a Microsoft Partner you need to be at WPC this year. In addition to meeting me (!!) you’ll experience the best sessions, the best networking and the best all-around Thank You experience Microsoft can give.

As soon as the networking is turned on, I’ll let everyone know. If you have service offerings related to deployment or adoption, I’d love to meet you and at least exchange cards and promise to look for opportunities to work together. I’ll also have my Twitter account going (you have one, don’t you?) so maybe I can figure out a cool scavenger hunt or game of tag to play with everyone.

Microsoft Business Value Planning Services

cmross — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:40:58 GMT

Recently, I’ve been hearing more from customers looking for Microsoft’s help in quantifying the ROI that deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office System will support. We’ve been fortunate to have both a consulting arm, field sales and Partners that can help customers with this, through offerings such as the Rapid Economic Justification. Last November, we added a benefit to our Software Assurance licensing agreement to make this a paid-for service, the Business Value Planning Service.

What it is

Microsoft Business Value Planning Services (BVPS) is a Software Assurance (SA) benefit through which Microsoft pays Partners to deliver and engagement through which a certified BVPS consultant helps customers develop a plan for improving business process through the use of the Microsoft Office System. Depending upon the specifics of your SA benefit, this may be funded for 3-15 days of engagement. During that time, the consultant follows a proven agenda that includes identifying a business process improvement scenario from the following list:

Automated Forms: Reduce costs and streamline form driven business processes.
Automated Performance Reporting: Improve decision making through near-real time creation and access to performance reports.
Budgeting: Improve accuracy of creation and tracking of departmental budgets.
Collaborative Document Development: Improve a company’s ability to develop and review documents across teams and improve content reuse.
Content Search and Reuse: Improve a company’s ability to organize and find information through online repositories.
Merging Project Plans: Integrate multiple project planning efforts for better resource planning and tracking.
Performance Management: Improve a company’s performance management processes through more efficient and effective planning, forecasting, analysis, and reporting.
Project Portfolio Management: Improve a company’s project prioritization and selection, and the project portfolio’s overall strategic alignment.
Remote Training: Reduce costs and streamline a company’s training processes through virtual / remote training.
Routing Communications: Improve communication and speed issue resolution through new and integrated communications – email, telephone, instant messaging.
Sensitive Records Management: Improve a company’s current process for creating, managing and deleting sensitive records such as legal, financial, medical and HR.

How to get it

If you have Software Assurance, you’re halfway there! The next step is to choose a Partner to help you, from the list of Packaged Service Providers found here. You can also check with your preferred Partner, to see if they are already certified (if not, point them to www.MicrosoftBVPS.com for more information). The consultant assigned will contact you and explain the agenda, find out a little more about your business and discuss the scenarios you would like to know more about.

In summary, I really like this benefit because it gets to the heart of what customers need today in justifying IT spend and valuating ROI. If you have any questions about this benefit, you can contact Microsoft directly from bvpshelp@microsoft.com

Deploy Windows Vista or Wait for Windows 7?

cmross — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:36:14 GMT

Hey! Have you heard of Windows 7? LOL. Yeah, even my 13yr old is quizzing me on the date. Which is kinda funny, seeing that he’s the IT guy in the house. Well, Windows 7 is on the minds of our customers and Partners; I’m sure that most (all) of you are running the Beta too on some machine. The interest has been amazing (Circa Windows 95 maybe?) and it’s something we’re really happy and proud about. But the #2 question I hear from customers (after “When is it being released?) is “What should I be doing?” I’ll share with you the same guidance I’ve given to our field sales teams, customer’s I’ve met and our Partners. It’s framed around 3 statements:

Windows 7 is not a panacea for bad IT. Many of the customers I speak with are running Windows XP with a mix of Basic or Standard-optimized capabilities. That’s concerning; not because they aren’t running Windows Vista, but because they haven’t used the time to optimize their infrastructure. Windows 7 could be the next best thing to sliced bread, but if you don’t have the ability to build 2 images max, deploy without touching the desktop, leverage virtualization technologies, etc. it doesn’t really matter does it? I love technology just as much as the next techie, but make sure you have your priorities in the right order: training the staff, improving the server infrastructure and having a solid PC lifecycle plan. Which brings me to my next point, which is…

There are no stop signs on the road to Windows 7. If there is one consistent behavior I’ve seen over the past 2 client OS releases, it’s a hesitance to pull the trigger on deployment before SP1. Why is that? 2 reasons: confidence in the RTM quality and preparedness. Hopefully, we’re earning your trust and the interest in Windows 7 beta has proven to be a worthwhile consideration of early adoption. But if it were to RTM today are you ready to deploy? In most cases, the answer is probably not. And that’s too bad, because with Windows XP going into Extended Support, many of you may be in a reactive mode rather than proactively managing your desktop. So how can an IT shop plan for Windows 7? There are 4 resources you should be considering, as a way to keep your foot on the gas:

Desktop Deployment Planning Services. This is a free services engagement for customer with Software Assurance. It will pay for either a Partner or Microsoft Consulting Services to come on site for anywhere from 3-15 days and help you plan & pilot your deployment of Office 2007, Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Microsoft App Compat Toolkit. Most applications written for Windows Vista will run stock on Windows 7, so do your testing on Windows Vista. By doing so, you’ll be able to set a baseline with Windows Vista and return to it, rather than Windows XP, should an application not be immediately supported at RTM.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. This subscription service has everything a band of IT rock stars could hope for, including:

Asset Inventory Service. Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly how many applications are in your Enterprise? Who is running them? What version? Many customers have work to do in understanding the scope of effort necessary to manage their applications. With AIS, this is something that can be started today, and likely decrease licensing costs and time spent building images, while increasing manageability.
Microsoft Application Virtualization. Pick your flavor: VPC, MED-V, APP-V, VDI. Never has there been so many ways to decrease the challenges of application compatibility, the time and cost of deploying and managing the desktop. Read the full Microsoft virtualization story here.
Advanced Group Policy Management. Managing multiple client OSes is the reality. AGPM gives that added level of flexibility and manageability to the desktop experience.

And finally the Springboard Series, chock-full of Windows client training resources.

It’s not about Windows Vista vs Windows 7. It’s about Desktop Optimization.

Your IT vision is probably less about what version of Windows to deploy, and more about optimizing your IT infrastructure and desktops. The Microsoft platform can help you do that, and I encourage you to expect the support of your account team and technology Partners to make that a reality. So without further ado, here’s what to do:

If you are deploying Windows Vista today, keep deploying Windows Vista. Take advantage of your MDOP subscription to begin exploring virtualization technologies.
If you are running Windows NT/2000 (or older). Deploy Windows Vista now. Seriously. Virtualize OS-dependent applications and get on a supported operating system.

If you are running Windows XP, begin your planning and infrastructure preparation now. When you are ready to being deploying, target Windows 7 but have Windows Vista as a fall-back if ISV support or appcompat issues are a blocker. You will be in the best position, with the agility and lower costs you’ve always hoped for.

So what do you think? I hope this gives everyone guidance they can take and make their own. It’s important that you use the announcement of Windows 7 as the opportunity to solidify your IT vision and make it a reality.