We have relaunched: What's new at ZDNet Asia?

Public sector seeks cost-savings from Vista

Summary

Cost savings will be a top consideration for public sector organizations migrating to Windows Vista, but it's not the only factor in their decision.

Events

Microsoft MSDN/Developer Event
25 Mar 2010

One Marina Boulevard, Microsoft Singapore

IT Architect Regional Conference Singapore 2010
20 - 21 Apr 2010

Singapore Management University, Singapore

The Internet Show 2010
21-22 Apr 2010

Suntec Singapore

Cost savings will be a top consideration for public sector organizations migrating to Windows Vista, but it's not the only factor in their decision.

Terry Smith, director of Microsoft's UK public sector business, said: "The big thing to drive Vista uptake [in the public sector] is showing cost savings are really significant."

Public sector uptake of Vista will be all about proving the new operating system can provide savings, he explained. "It won't be for end-user benefits such as UI [user interface], search and accessibility," Smith said.

Quocirca analyst Elaine Axby agreed cost is important in the public sector--but that it was not the only feature they're looking for. "[The public sector] does care about cost savings but functionality is important too. What's even more important is that the system is tried and tested and without bugs that are going to impact major applications."

When it comes to whether public sector organization will lag private businesses in rolling out Vista, experts are again divided.

Microsoft's Smith said: "It's a fallacy that the public sector is slower to adopt technology."

In fact, he added, public sector organizations are "slightly ahead of the curve" in rolling out some types of IT.

But Quocirca's Axby believes public sector organizations will be "a long time" in adopting Vista and may well take longer than the private sector - especially if it requires major hardware upgrades.

The consumer versions of Vista became available earlier this week, while the enterprise versions launched in November.

Despite the hype around the launch, UK businesses are adopting a cautious approach towards Vista. silicon.com's CIO Jury said they see few compelling reasons to upgrade and most will wait until at least 2008 before moving to the new OS.

Sylvia Carr of Silicon.com reported from London.

Talkback

Add your opinion

In order to post a comment, you need to be registered. (Sign In or register below)

Post your comment
Transform your business interactions with real-time voice, video and telepresence solutions.
Tech Vendor: Cisco

ZDNet Asia Live

Zdnetasia.com Estimated Worth $178,365 USD. Daily Ad Revenue:$244 USD, Daily Views:81,445 Pages... - http://www.haplog.com/www.zdneta...

recently estimated website net worth of zdnetasia.com - http://www.haplog.com/www.zdneta...

3 hours 7 minutes ago by haplog on topsy

When I create an event, I click on an approximate time during the day when I want the event to occur, then I click "edit event detail...

17 hours 43 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Google Calendar gets 'smart' rescheduling

ipads break alott i had one it broke three times in the month i had it so i got rid of the damn thing id just go for the laptop Top Grade...

17 hours 45 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Report: 'Hundreds of thousands' of iPad preorders

There are a number of websites that still require Internet Explorer to view and IE for Mac Stinks (it is really ies4osx which is the Wind...

17 hours 47 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Microsoft: Only minor tweaks in Windows 7 SP1

The receivers don't transmit back to the satellite. Unless there is a phone line attached to the receiver, they don't have any wa...

17 hours 49 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Apple to join the geolocation craze?

What to expect from open source Symbian http://is.gd/aPIGL

18 hours 5 minutes ago by rebelk0de on topsy

"Lead Cognos BI Developer Insurance in New South Wales , Australian ..." http://bit.ly/ayy19L

18 hours 44 minutes ago by rhrcognos on topsy

whatever little understanding I have we 'll only progress toward end of the world if we use HPCs to lenthen life of human being. Huma...

1 day 56 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on High computing promises elixir of life

Thanks for the knowledgeable article on SDDs. Allas...when all this reasearch will happen in Indian Universities. Hope the new bill on Fo...

1 day 9 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on APAC HPC users eye solid-state drives

It was a good article. This brings a good opportunity for Indian IT firms to come up with new solutions in this field. HPC can become a b...

1 day 27 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on High computing most-wanted job in Asia

COL KR DHARMADHIKARY(RETD) its very late to reply the link, but if it is still alive and looking for opportunity, i would like to know th...

1 day 25 minutes ago by deb021280 on Education takes off in rural India, helped by PCs

It was just a matter of time until google was marginalised anyway. I'm afraid this will be forgotten in China very quickly. Still, it...

1 day 30 minutes ago by robinsmith on Report: Google to leave China on April 10

High performance computing (HPC) most-wanted job in Asia http://bit.ly/9vFC3i (via @zdnetasia) #singapore

He doesn't care if her shoes are of glass, All he wants to see is a huge rack and nice a*s. Sleeping beauty's not awoken by true ...

1 day 58 minutes ago by warlowdavies on One pair of 3D glasses to rule them all

RT @zdnetasia: EMC COO, Pat Gelsinger, on bridging gaps in the organization and its cloud ambitions in Asia. (cont) http://tl.gd/i5jjd

EMC COO, Pat Gelsinger, on bridging gaps in the organization and its cloud ambitions in Asia. http://bit.ly/9etOZW

Asian SMBs need to pay more attention to disaster recovery planning http://bit.ly/bDet08 via @zdnetasia

Asian SMBs need to pay more attention to disaster recovery planning http://bit.ly/bDet08

[TECH] URL Shorteners slow Web redirection. - http://bit.ly/bySnWK @zdnetasia

URL shorteners are great but they can slow web redirection & you pray it would never go down http://bit.ly/bySnWK via @zdnetasia

Temasek Holdings eyeing tech stocks, indicating optimistic outlook on IT sector. http://bit.ly/aM7VwU

URL shorteners slow Web redirection. http://bit.ly/bySnWK

Chinese agencies cry foul over Google. http://bit.ly/by6rwV

Philippine antipiracy drive focuses on enterprises. http://bit.ly/aWryDC

Gartner: China to become world's fastest-growing enterprise software market. http://bit.ly/bqJTtb

all of sg's isps have been practising compulsory invisible proxy for all home subscribers at their backend since many years back alre...

2 days 8 minutes ago by melvinchia on Web filters mean bad news for business

it is not to good for china.
Proactol

2 days 53 minutes ago by nathonastle on Chinese ad partners beg Google for information

RT @zdnetasia: HP touts new products and management and productivity tools to address business computing pain points. http://bit.ly/dudgA6

For those with a computer science background, or interested in the high performance computing scene: http://bit.ly/9vFC3i

IT security insiders rob casinos of $50K http://is.gd/aPIKR

3 days 25 minutes ago by rebelk0de on topsy

Very good explanation of JMX

3 days 58 minutes ago by Babith B on Managing applications with JMX

The reaction to a report issued Tuesday by Flurry Analytics managed to completely overlook some interesting news--the Android-based Motorola Droid outsold the original iPhone over the same period of time following their respective launches--to focus instead on the sales numbers for the Nexus One.

3 days 2 minutes ago by lonemavericks on diggs

Another ZTE story....

3 days 4 minutes ago by Moderate Your Greed on Philippines opens bid for final 3G license

We at www.fifosys.com have also seen a growth in IT outsourcing and anticipate it as a growing field.

3 days 37 minutes ago by sarah Jane on Companies' outsourcing spend to increase