If you work for a company contemplating upgrading your desktops from older versions of Windows to Windows 7, there is a way to offset the cost associated with the upgrade and pay for the upgrade out of operational savings. These savings could add up to over $700/year per desktop image.
Avanade Inc. has a method that will assist companies with paying for their Windows 7 deployment through cost savings. The cost savings are derived from creating a Definitive Software Library (DSL) and truing up software licensing.
Avanade Inc.'s process is called ACA Accelerate and it allows organizations to understand what software their company currently owns, how many users and what versions the company is running. This creates a current state software list and Avanade uses this information to model a future state which will typically drive approximately a $400 per desktop in software savings.
A typical desktop environment cost $5000/year to maintain according to Gartner. Software typically costs about 25% or $1,250 of the desktop expenses. Through a rationalization process, a company can usually reduce redundant or unused software between 25% to 33% of the overall software costs, which would produce savings between $312 per desktop and $412 per desktop.
In addition to these savings, Microsoft has come up with a total cost of ownership reduction figure of approximately $155 by using Windows 7. If you were to add Application Virtualization into the equation, then there is approximately another $155 cost savings. By adding these TCO reductions with the savings from using ACA Accelerate to create a Definitive Software Library, this can provide over $700 per desktop in savings. At most, your desktop migration to Windows 7 shouldn't cost more than $350/desktop and that would be at the high end with a lot of hand holding and white gloves involved.
Example of a TCO Reduction For a 5,000 Desktop Company :
As an example, if your company were to have 5000 desktop images, your approximate yearly cost to manage that environment would be $25,000,000 ($5,000 per desktop time 5000 desktops). By utilizing Avanade's ACA Accerate service to derive $400/desktop in savings while creating a Definitive Software Library, your savings would be $2,000,000 in the first year and then adding the savings, $310 per desktop, that can be had by efficiency gains from upgrading to Windows 7, that would add another $1,550,000 in savings yearly savings.
So for this company, if they didn't upgrade to Windows 7 from their current Windows Platform, they would spend $25M/year on their desktop environment. By using ACA Accelerate to rationalize applications and then upgrading to Windows 7, the annual desktop costs would be $23M with savings of $2M and by utilizing Application Virtualization, the total costs of the desktop environment would be $21.45M which would drive savings of $3.55M or over 14%. Over a 5 year period, this would provide over $17M in savings for your organization.
| Cumulative Costs | With Windows 7 Savings and ACA Accelerat Savings | Cumulative Savings | Percent Annual Savings | |
| Year1 | $25,000,000 | $21,450,000 | $3,550,000 | 14% |
| Year2 | $50,000,000 | $42,900,000 | $7,100,000 | 14% |
| Year3 | $75,000,000 | $64,350,000 | $10,650,000 | 14% |
| Year4 | $100,000,000 | $85,800,000 | $14,200,000 | 14% |
| Year5 | $125,000,000 | $107,250,000 | $17,750,000 | 14% |
| Total Savings: | $17,750,000 | |||
This chart shows the cumulative costs associated with not going to Windows 7 in Blue.
The Red in the chart show the cumulative effects of using savings from ACA Accelerate and the potential savings from Windows 7.
If you are contemplating a Windows 7 Upgrade, you owe it to your company to contact Avanade to see how you can reduce your overall cost and either pay for all or a large portion of you upgrade. Avanade Inc. will provide and initial assessment free of charge for Calgary based businesses if you contact us at 403-476-1473.
If you would like to understand how ACA Accelerate can help you can reduce your Windows 7 implementation in Western Canada or for that matter, anywhere in the world, please contact Chris Hamilton at Avanade in Calgary at 403-476-1473 or via email at chris.hamilton@avanade.com.
