Kiwi businesses trending strongly towards Windows 10

Kiwi businesses trending strongly towards Windows 10

Research shows 60 percent of New Zealand businesses planning to upgrade in the next 12 months

AUCKLAND, 1 March 2016 – New research released today shows that almost 1 in 5 New Zealand businesses have either fully or partially deployed Windows 10 since its global launch in 2015, and a further 60 per cent are planning to upgrade to Windows 10 within the next 12 months.

The insights emerged from an Enterprise and Partner Survey recently completed by Tech Research Asia (TRA) on behalf of Microsoft New Zealand. Respondents were drawn from a broad spectrum of New Zealand businesses and Microsoft Partner organisations. Each respondent was asked for their views on Windows 10 and the associated impact they expect Windows 10 to have on their business.

Mark Iles, Executive Consultant for Cloud and Software at TRA, says that the survey shows the key reason New Zealand Businesses are adopting Windows 10 is because they recognise the importance of having a cloud first strategy.

“Microsoft has been unequivocal about its strategy development of Windows 10 as the operating system for the mobile first, cloud first world, and the clear indications from this survey are that Kiwi businesses are responding warmly to it.”

Iles says secondary reasons for business’ upgrading are because they are refreshing their device fleet, and are realising the growing importance of integrating the mobile and desktop environments.

“In any case, the survey showed that over the next 24 months, over 75 per cent of businesses surveyed expect to upgrade to Windows 10,” says Iles.

Notably, when asked whether the fact Windows 10 is a free upgrade would influence their decision, 43 per cent of respondent businesses said they intended to upgrade anyway, and Windows 10 being free had no impact on their plans.

Consumerisation of IT is also having a direct impact on formal Windows 10 adoption plans, with 35 per cent of respondents indicating that their employees are bringing their own devices to work. Of these, 43 per cent said this is quickening the rate of adoption of Windows 10 in their organisation as a result.

Iles says the outlook is also good for Microsoft’s partners in New Zealand, with the customer research showing strong consideration for adopting additional services and solutions within 18 months of deploying Windows 10 including:

• 67% of customers likely to purchase Managed Services
• 64% of customers likely to purchase Additional Security Solutions
• 63% of customers likely to purchase Office 365
• 61% of customers likely to purchase Mobile Device Management Services.

Iles says it is obvious that Microsoft partners are excited about the business opportunity around Windows 10, with 80 per cent of respondents expressing the view that it will provide opportunities to grow their business.

Iles says one surprising insight from the research was the indication that Microsoft’s partners are underestimating customer demand for Window 10.

“While the research highlighted that 18 per cent of New Zealand customers interviewed have already deployed Windows 10 in their organisations and 60 per cent are planning to upgrade within 12 months, the majority (80%) of partners thought only 20 per cent of their customers would upgrade within that period.”

Microsoft’s stated goal is to have one billion devices running Windows 10 within the next three years. Recently, the company announced it had already reached 200 million downloads.

“Windows 10 clearly presents a huge opportunity for Microsoft’s partners. It will be interesting to see how the ongoing global expansion raises the demand for its local deployment.”

ENDS

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