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Microsoft Windows 7

RIP Windows 7 – how to avoid this situation in future

The much-loved operating systems extended support finally ended this week; however, research has found that 96% of the UK’s FTSE 100 and 250 companies are still running legacy applications on the old OS. Here we take a quick look at how you can avoid this situation in future and ensure your IT estate remains up-to-date all the time.

Windows 7 finally reached its end of life on 14th January 2020. However, a lot of businesses still rely on applications and equipment that is designed to run exclusively on Windows 7. Although the extended support has now ended, organisations can pay Microsoft if they want to continue getting updates for Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Enterprise. Charges for this range from $25 (£19) - $50 (£38) up until January 2021, after which costs will rise to up to $200.  

Businesses often find it much harder to upgrade to a newer operating system and technology than consumers will do. For example, there may be critical apps that the organisation uses that will not work on more modern operating systems. Or, as is often the case, there might be significant costs associated with updating these applications or the IT estate on the whole. Finally, the management of procuring and rolling out an entire IT estate can present challenges for a business, making it, therefore, seem ‘easier’ to continue using the existing equipment.

When evaluating how you can keep your technology up-to-date, you need to take a step back and look at how you initially procure your IT equipment. Here financing has a significant advantage over using cash. Financing provides you with a pre-defined refresh period according to the length of the term agreed at the start. Typically, this is 2 years for mobile phones and tablets, 3 years for laptops and 3-5 years for desktop PCs. At the end of the contract term, you hand the equipment back and upgrade to the latest technology, providing you with a seamless transition of equipment, while ensuring your IT is always at the forefront of technology.

Although a finance agreement provides you with the means to keep your technology estate up-to-date, how does it actually work in practice? For large organisations, moving thousands of devices in and out of the business can be difficult, not to mention the complex nature of managing the entire process. Having a finance agreement alone won’t account for who is going to roll out and set up the equipment? What happens if a device breaks, goes missing or gets stolen? And lastly, how to move the old equipment out of the business while moving the new equipment in.

One way to achieve all this and avoid the Windows 7 situation is to use an independent financer. Here at CHG-MERIDIAN we are completely independent of banks, manufacturers and service providers and can offer a complete end-to-end managed IT service, that’ll keep your business up-to-date with the latest technology, and therefore help to support the growth of your business. Last year we had a lot of our customers talking to us about how they were still running Windows 7 and needed an urgent upgrade. Our advice to avoid this situation is to be proactive, don’t wait until the last minute to upgrade your IT equipment. Get a regular refresh cycle in place and stick to it and remember sometimes paying a little bit more for a better solution can often be the most cost-effective route.

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We provide our customers with a solution that allows them to avoid costly cash purchases and keep their IT portfolio up-to-date with greater cost transparency. If you'd like to hear more about our solution, or how we can help you, feel free to contact us directly or fill in our short form below.

Danny Persaud

Head of Sales - UK & Ireland Corporate

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