Vista or XP?
There has been so much buzz about Windows Vista and its place in the legal community, I thought a few comments would be appropriate. In short, I strongly believe the benefits of deploying Windows Vista are more long term while deploying XP is more of a short term solution. Sure, deploying Vista will probably require some software upgrades to be fully operational on your network, but deploying XP will only lead to problems down the road. And in my opinion, deploying XP will cause more problems down the road than deploying Vista would today. Here’s my rationale:
Say you deploy XP today. Everything works fine – you don’t need to upgrade your applications, train your staff members, buy new peripherals, download new drivers, or deal with any of that hassle. Sounds great, right? I think so. But let’s look down the road two years. In two years from now your XP desktop system will be about half way through its life cycle (if you consider most law firms try to get 4 years out of their PCs). So now it’s two years later, you’re running XP, and you want to upgrade to the newest version of your business application (new features, old version isn’t supported anymore, etc.). Unfortunately, you can’t because the new version doesn’t run on XP anymore. You’re stuck. You can’t install the application without upgrading to Vista and upgrading now certainly costs more than if you would have purchased Vista in the first place. Ultimately, you still have to invest in training, address other compatibility issues, and all the rest like you would have initially, but now it costs more to do so. So really your choices become one of 3…
1. Upgrade all your PCs and applications at the same time some time down the road
2. Stay with XP and know you won’t be able to upgrade your software until you make the jump to Vista
3. Deploy Vista in accordance with the life cycle of your existing systems and address the issues that come with it
Whichever route you decide is best for your firm, don’t make a hasty decision. Deploy Vista as part of your overall IT plan so you’re in control.
Applications, Law Practice Management, Networking | Joe Ulm | 
November 13, 2007 11:44 am
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