Telecom Lead India: Bharti Airtel has saved Rs 2,000 per PC by moving from Microsoft Windows XP to Windows 7.
This translates in to huge saving as Bharti Airtel’s headcount stood at 26,596 in Q4 FY 2013 against 23,413 in Q3 FY 2013. Bharti Airtel has added 3,183 jobs in the fourth quarter of FY 2013.
Bharti Airtel has shifted to Windows 7 at a time when around 50-60 percent installed PC base in Indian enterprises are still running Windows XP.
Microsoft revealed the savings to Bharti Airtel as part of its initiatives to encourage Indian enterprises and IT users to migrate to Windows 7 / 8 from XP.
Microsoft wants Indian enterprise users to migrate to benefit from new value additions.
Cost of upgrading (assuming no enterprise license agreement and three-year amortization period) will be $95 against the cost of non-migrating which will be $300 per user followed by almost a double the cost in the subsequent year, should they choose to opt for a custom support contract to stay on Windows XP post April 2014.
A Microsoft press release quoting an IDC research says the non-migration cost is only the documentable cost as this does not include costs related to business loss due to security and data breach threats, productivity loss and other similar factors.
Microsoft plans to end support for Windows XP on 8 April, 2014.
