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Computer Troubleshooters: Windows 7 a good choice for SMBs

Services organisation's internal survey of franchisees shows a great deal of faith in Windows 7, with most recommending customers upgrade from XP or Vista to the new OS

Windows 7 seems to have eluded the bad taste Vista left and won customers over, according to a new survey.

Computer Troubleshooters’ survey of its franchise network found 93 per cent of their customers perceived Windows 7 as a reliable alternative to XP or Vista. Computer Troubleshooters is a small business onsite services organisation that operates in 26 countries. The survey canvassed 215 franchisees from November 19-26.

Just under 74 per cent of the franchises had installed Windows 7 on their own computers, while 54.8 per cent installed it on a customer’s computer. Overall, 53.9 per cent of respondents listed Windows 7 as their preferred operating system.

Computer Troubleshooters national director, Nick Roche, said the results were essentially what the service provider was praying for after the effect Vista had on the market.

“It’s rare for technicians to give such a positive rating for a first version of a product,” Roche said. However, other survey results were not immediately as positive.

When asked if franchisees were recommending Vista customers upgrade to Windows 7, 45.1 per cent responded ‘yes, but not now’. For the same question around Windows XP, 56.7 per cent said they were not recommending an immediate upgrade to Windows 7. Furthermore, 27.9 per cent are not recommending upgrading from XP to Windows 7 at all.

Roche attributed the results to some uncertainty around application compatibility, which was the main problem organisations had with Windows Vista.

“There’s still some apprehension in the market with people who got stung by application compatibility with Vista,” Roche said. “So far, though, I’ve only seen a couple of small issues around this, and I believe they’ve already been resolved – Windows 7 is much better from this point of view.”

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