The Business Case for Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Today

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02/20/2014

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Published: December 1, 1998

The Business Case for Windows NT Workstation 4.0
Overview: The Business Value Of Moving To Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Today
Independent Research Summary
The Business Benefits Of A Low TCO Platform
The Business Benefits of Increased Performance
The Business Benefits of Increased Reliability
The Business Benefits of Fewer Helpdesk Calls
Cost Considerations
Gaining From Today's Deployment Efforts Tomorrow
Summary
Appendix A – Methodology Used for Calculating Reliability Gains
Appendix B – Frequently Asked Questions
Appendix C – Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Web Resources

The Business Case for Windows NT Workstation 4.0

There are many reasons why Microsoft® Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 is fast becoming the operating system of choice for all business users. It is the combined effect of all of these aspects that enables Windows NT Workstation 4.0 to deliver the very highest Return on Investment (ROI) that is discussed in greater detail later in this document.

Windows 95 was the right decision 3 years ago, but business needs have changed since that time

TCO - Increasingly complex and expensive to "touch desktops" and manage OS deployment and application life cycles
Increasing requirements for greater security
Greater dependence upon PCs driving the need for higher reliability
New applications demand higher performance and ability to scale
Preparing for Year 2000 and Euro Currency Support

Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is a mature product and has widespread industry support

Runs on mainstream hardware
Support for the top 150 Line of Business (LOB) applications
Improved device driver support (increase of 63% to now over 6500 devices)
Great mobile support from OEMs (PnP, APM, Device Swapping, Suspend)

Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is the best Windows platform

Fastest Performance
Highest Reliability
Strongest Security
Best platform for LOB applications and Web
Lowest Total Cost of Ownership
Best Manageability to reduce Help Desk calls
Comprehensive Networking and Connectivity (now including seamless Unix interoperability with Windows NT Services for Unix)
Easiest Migration path to Windows 2000 Professional

Industry Analysts agree

Giga Group recently recommended that organizations who are able to make the move today to Windows NT workstation, do so without delay, and gain the benefits now.
Zona Research also concluded from a recent customer survey that managing a mixed 32-bit Windows environment was significantly easier than managing a mixed 16/32-bit environment

Easy to introduce to the organization

Windows NT Workstation can be pre-installed on all new machines to provide an optimized configuration that can be rapidly deployed
Easy to deploy – it can come pre-installed direct from PC manufacturers
Great compatibility – OEMs will provide an optimized configuration
Great support – OEMs will provide a 1-stop support for the hardware and OS
System Preparation Tool – enables disk duplication for easy system deployment
Windows 2000 Ready PC Program – What you buy today is ready to run Windows 2000 Professional tomorrow (Seehttps://www.microsoft.com/hk/windows2000/W2kReady.htm for details)

Finally, it should also be noted that Windows NT was originally designed for the business user and that Windows NT technology is Microsoft's strategic business direction.

Overview: The Business Value Of Moving To Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Today

Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 delivers the highest Return on Investment (ROI) compared to any other version of the Windows operating system, according to several independently conducted research studies. The scale of the return will heavily depend on the level of PC usage by job type. When the potential net benefits are aggregated, it is revealed that even low PC usage occupations such as Service Professions where 1 hour a day or less on a PC is not uncommon can realize net gains in the order of $3,400 per user per year. For high PC usage occupations such as Managers and Administrators the net gains rise dramatically and can be in the order of $5,300 per user per year.

It has become clear that the most cost-effective way to deploy Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today is pre-installed on all new machines. For existing machines capable of running Windows NT Workstation 4.0, the increased popularity of 'cloning' tools to copy an entire PC configuration (including applications) is delivering very rapid deployments in the order of 15 minutes per PC. Either way, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 can be deployed both rapidly and economically.

Making the right decision today

Many customers are facing the decision on whether to make the investment to move to Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 today or to wait until Windows 2000 Professional is available and invest at some future point. This document summarizes the key findings in these studies and describes how the deployment of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today provides businesses with immediately increased ROI. The key findings to support this are:

TCO	35% lower TCO than a base Windows 9x configuration
Performance	Up to 30% faster than Windows 95 or Windows 98
Reliability	3 times more reliable than Windows 95
Support	Nearly 30% fewer helpdesk calls

There are also several other qualitative factors that contribute to the increased ROI from Windows NT Workstation 4.0, which should be given close consideration:

Strongest Security	Provides the highest protection against the risk of data theft, fraud and unauthorized access to confidential information on the local hard disk
Easiest Future Migration	Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is the most cost effective upgrade path to Windows 2000 Professional
Windows® Strategy	Windows NT Workstation is Microsoft's strategic client operating system. All future development will be based on NT technology.

Increasing your ROI with Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today

In the past, many customers chose Windows 95® in order to gain the benefits of a modern 32-bit environment. At that time, moving to the most modern Windows was the right decision and the investment made then has paid off in numerous ways.

Today, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is at the leading edge and offers a superior ROI to Windows 95/98®. Put another way, the ROI from Windows 95 will in most cases have leveled out. For Windows 3x this is almost certainly true. Deploying Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today will start the ROI back on an upward trend that will continue to grow with Windows 2000 Professional in the future.

Independent Research Summary

There have been several studies made on various aspects on Windows NT Workstation 4.0 over the past 2 years. It is the summation of these, which have been used to compile the estimated savings described at the beginning of this paper. These results will most certainly vary from company to company but the key point is that when implemented in a managed environment, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 can deliver real and tangible benefits over Windows 95/98.

Some of the key quantitative findings to support this are summarized below and discussed in detail later in this paper:

Reduce TCO up to $3,514 per user per year

Source: Gartner Group, Research Note TCO-252 - "TCO: New Technologies, New Benchmarks", 1997)
Increase productivity benefits up to $2,133 per user per year through better performance

Source: Microsoft estimation based on NSTL, "Operating System Performance Comparison for Business Applications" Study, 1998 and Bureau of Labor Statistics 1996 National Occupational Employment and Wage Data
Reduce end user downtime costs by as much as $73 per user per year from better reliability

Source: Microsoft estimation based on Sofres Intersearch, "Windows Operating System User Reliability Study", 1998 and Bureau of Labor Statistics 1996 National Occupational Employment and Wage Data
Reduce helpdesk costs by up to $483 per user per year

Source: Technology Business Research Inc, "A White paper on the Impact of Windows NT Workstation on Helpdesk Operations", 1996

If one also considers the following, significant qualitative facts then it is clear to see why Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is the right decision – today.

The technical process to upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional will be smoothest and fastest from Windows NT Workstation 4.0
Today it is possible to deploy a Windows NT Workstation 4.0 based machine fully configured with applications in around 15 minutes per desktop (fully loaded with applications)
There already exists a highly effective way get Windows NT Workstation 4.0 installed today - pre-loaded on new machines

Informal estimates suggest that the average cost to deploy a new corporate desktop is in the range of $200-$400 per user. The level of automation in place, established organizational processes and degree of expertise available will largely drive this. The critical point to note here is that even assuming the worst case, the benefits that are achievable far outweigh the costs.

This data makes it clear that the ways to achieve efficiency and the resultant benefits are extremely flexible and that overall, the aggregated benefits can be immense. However, the level of return will be entirely dependent on the extent to which an organization is prepared to go to implement the cost saving measures outlined.

The rest of this document is devoted to describing each of the key benefit areas and how they impact ROI in detail.

The Business Benefits Of A Low TCO Platform

A respected industry analyst conducted a study on Desktop TCO* in 1997 that drew several important conclusions. Process improvements in the areas of training and technical support can certainly help to contain or reduce TCO, but it is noted that the appropriate application of technology can also make a significant impact.

The positive impact on TCO an organization can realize by implementing a well managed Windows-based PC environment can be enormous and TCO reductions can range from 25-35 percent depending on the configuration used. A well managed Windows-based PC environment offers the lowest TCO available, regardless of whether you are implementing personal productivity platforms or terminal replacements. For example, the difference in TCO platform costs between a standard Windows 95-based PC configuration and a tightly managed Windows NT Workstation 4.0-based PC was $3,514 per user per year. When compared to a Windows 3.1 PC this figure rises to $4,317 per user per year.

Chart 1 Windows NT Workstation 4.0 provides the lowest TCO

Windows NT Workstation 4.0 not only offers the lowest TCO in the industry, but it also offers choice, flexibility, and compatibility. This is largely due to the millions of Windows-based hardware solutions and software applications that are currently available.

The Business Benefits of Increased Performance

A recent study by the National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) concluded that Windows NT Workstation 4.0 outperformed Windows 95 and Windows 98 between 22% and 30% depending on the configuration. It is not unreasonable to assume that this performance gain can in some way be directly translated to increased productivity.

Based on very conservative estimates of PC usage and performance improvements for a range of different professions it can be seen from the table below that even low PC usage professions can achieve enhanced productivity over the medium term.

To assess the business impact of performance gains requires the base assumption already made above that increased machine performance can be translated to greater end user productivity. Using this assumption together with average salary data for a range of occupations reveals that it is possible to achieve gains (or "Value") in the range of $246 to $2,133 per user per year, depending on profession.

It is clear that those professions that make a greater use of Information Technology will achieve the greatest return and the table below illustrates the range of gains for a selection of professions:

1 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1996 National Occupational Employment and Wage Data

2 Source: Microsoft Estimate

3 Source: National Software Testing Laboratories. Tests performed independently by NSTL without independent verification by Ziff-Davis. Ziff Davis' makes no representations or warranties. Winstone is a registered trademark or trademark of Ziff-Davis Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Your results may vary

Table 1 The business value of Windows NT Workstation 4.0's superior performance

Methodology

The results in table above are based on the lowest performance gain of 22%. This therefore represents the minimum gain likely

Using the "Managerial and Administrative Operations" profession as an example:

· Estimated PC Hours per day:	4
· Performance Increase:	22%
· Productivity Gain per day:	0.88 hours (4 hours x 22% Performance Increase)
· Productivity Gain per year:	211.2 hours (Productivity Gain per day * 240 working days)
· Annual Value:	$4,266.24 (211.2 hours * $20.20/hour salary)
· Adjusted Value	$2,133.12 (Reduce 'Annual Value' by 50% to more accurately reflect typical and reasonable 'real world' productivity gains from improved PC performance)

The Business Benefits of Increased Reliability

A recent study by Sofres Intersearch concluded that Windows NT Workstation 4.0 was inherently more reliable than Windows 95 or Windows 98. Specifically, the study highlighted that it was up to 3 times less likely to experience serious system stoppages and thus three times more reliable. As with the Performance data above, It is not unreasonable to assume that this reliability gain can in some way be directly translated as a cost saving, this time in reduced end user downtime.

Based on very conservative estimates of PC usage and reliability improvements for a range of different professions it can be seen from the table below that even low PC usage professions can benefit from the use of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 to achieve enhanced productivity over the medium term.

To assess the business impact of reliability gains requires the base assumption already made above that reduced user downtime can also be ultimately translated to greater end user productivity. Using this assumption together with average salary data for a range of occupations reveals that it is possible to achieve savings in the range of approximately $13 to $73 per user per year depending on profession.

The table below summarizes the cost of downtime savings that are possible simply through the superior reliability of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 compared to Windows 95 or Windows 98

Table 2 The business value of Windows NT Workstation 4.0's superior reliability

Please refer to Appendix A on page 11 for the methodology used to arrive at these results.

The Business Benefits of Fewer Helpdesk Calls

Technology Business Research Inc. undertook a comprehensive study * of 14 Helpdesks in F100 firms having large numbers of installed PCs. After extensive research and evaluation of each Helpdesk's experiences with Windows 3.x and Windows for Workgroups 3.x, they determined that Windows NT Workstation would provide substantial Helpdesk savings for high volume users who switch to Windows NT Workstation.

The research program consisted of in-depth discussions with 14 Helpdesk managers (9 of who provided the call detail reports) in F100 companies representing over 120,000 PC users and more than 1.4 million Helpdesk calls per year. After analyzing more than forty-seven thousand individual Helpdesk call reports, having extensively evaluated and used Windows NT Workstation, and having surveyed Windows NT Workstation adopters, Technology Business Research was able to identify many areas where Windows NT Workstation will offer significant Helpdesk operations impact.

Key highlights:

Windows NT Workstation can be expected to reduce support costs by $483 per user per year and annual savings will continue for the life of the product.
The volume of PC Helpdesk calls can be reduced between 15% and 29% annually due to Windows NT Workstation robustness security and ease of use
Onsite visits can be reduced on average by 67% (range 44% to 93%) from the previous number of onsite visits requiring technical staff
Reduce Call volumes by up to 1,222 call per month based on the example average site with 9602 PCs.
The ability of Windows NT Workstation to allow roving staff secure access to virtually any PC within a relevant domain is helping several organizations to become more flexible and productive
Windows NT Workstation offers a rich set of features to enable rapid problem resolution

Taking all the potential economies into account reveals that it is possible to save up to $483 per user per year in providing a helpdesk

Table 3 Impact of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 on helpdesk operations

Cost Considerations

The financial benefits that can be realized outweigh the costs of standardizing on Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today and Windows 2000 Professional later.

There are two primary cost contributors involved in migrating a PC to a new operating system, Software acquisition and Software deployment

Software Acquisition

There are many different ways to acquire Windows NT Workstation 4.0, the least expensive being to have it pre-installed on all new PC's. The major PC manufacturers will provide Windows NT Workstation 4.0 as a standard no charge option which comes fully configured to operate correctly with all the various hardware options installed, such as sound cards, CD drives, and so forth

For those customers that wish to acquire the software to install on existing PC's Microsoft offers two volume licensing programs to meet the diverse purchasing needs of different-sized organizations

The Open License Program (MOLP) for 10 to 1,000 desktops

If your company has as few as 10 PCs, you can save 15 percent or more on every software license you purchase.

The Select Purchasing Program for more than 1,000 desktops

The Microsoft Select volume-licensing program offers your organization tiered, volume discounts on the Microsoft product licenses you need. Your price level is determined by your total two-year forecast of acquisitions within a category of products, and applies throughout your entire organization.

For example, today in the United States it is possible for Open License customers to acquire Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and a future upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional for $276. For a full list of Estimated Retail Prices for Open License and Select agreements please see the web at https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/.

Software Deployment

Informal research suggests that the deployment cost for an average PC is between $200-$400, and that these costs are primarily driven by established organizational processes. Typically, the lower cost deployments occur either when a high level of automation is used or when PC's are pre-configured prior to delivery. The highest cost deployments are those that are heavily manual and involve a high degree of customization. Technology can be used to great effect to enhance established processes and to reduce what are essentially static deployment costs.

A worst case scenario is one where deployment costs are relatively high and the deployment process used remains unchanged for Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 2000 Professional. It is more reasonable to assume that the processes will be modified to take advantage of new Windows 2000 Professional deployment technologies but, for the purposes of the rest of this paper the following worst case scenario is assumed:

Windows NT Workstation 4.0 (on a new PC) deployment cost:	$300
Windows 2000 Professional (on an existing PC) deployment cost:	$300
Total Deployment costs	$600

Gaining From Today's Deployment Efforts Tomorrow

Some of the more common activities in the deployment of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 where costs can help in the future with Windows 2000 Professional are:

Application Testing

Applications that are not currently operating on Windows NT Workstation should be tested for compatibility and functionality. In the vast majority of cases, if an application runs on Windows NT Workstation 4.0 it will run on Windows 2000 Professional. The potential additional effort for testing between versions of Windows NT Workstation will be minimal compared to the testing required for Windows 95 or Windows 98.
Deployment Planning

Planning is a critical component of any project, and deploying a new corporate desktop is no different. The planning elements in Windows NT Workstation 4.0 that will consume the most time typically relate to planning user administration. The administrative user planning effort expended for Windows NT Workstation 4.0 can be taken advantage of for Windows 2000 Professional. Customers planning to deploy Windows 2000 Server will also find for example, that System Policies created for Windows NT Workstation 4.0 clients will continue to be supported.
Physical Deployment

The recommended method for deployment of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is on new machines. Many businesses today receive systems fully loaded with their application suite and typically spend another 1-2 hours on minor customizations and physical installation. The upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional will be fastest and smoothest from Windows NT Workstation 4.0 - the requirements for additional effort are expected to be minimal compared to upgrading from any other version of Microsoft Windows ®.

If upgrading existing systems is not the preferred deployment method then an alternative is to use Disk Duplication, which is a method to take a 'snapshot' of a fully configured PC and apply it rapidly (in ~15 minutes) to other machines. This is supported today on Windows NT Workstation 4.0 with the System Preparation Tool1, for machines with identical hardware. This will be enhanced in Windows 2000 Professional to provide an even more flexible solution.

1 Available to Volume License customers
Support

It is recommended that the acquisition of depth skills within IT be a high priority for those customers considering a future move to Windows 2000 Professional. A recent survey by Zona Research2 found that "the overwhelming majority (88%) [of respondents] perceived the training as an investment that will pay off in future IT department efficiencies". It is therefore clear that the time spent developing depth skills in Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today can only help to prepare the organization for Windows 2000 Professional tomorrow.

2 "Assessing IT Efficiencies Associated with Windows NT Workstation 4.0" October 1998
Training

Users of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will find the transition to Windows 2000 Professional very simple. Windows 2000 Professional contains many refinements aimed at making it easy for existing Windows NT Workstation 4.0 users to transition easily and to allow new users to become productive quickly.

Summary

Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 delivers the highest Return on Investment (ROI) compared to any other version of Windows.

The aggregated gains for an organization can be significant across the PC workforce, irrespective of occupation, and it is also clear that high volume PC users will realize the greatest relative benefit.

The table below summarizes the independent study findings together with the associated migration costs to acquire and deploy Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today and Windows 2000 Professional in the future.

Important Note The financial gains projected in this paper are based on 1996 US Government Salary Survey data, and therefore do not factor in fully burdened staffing costs or overheads. It is our belief therefore that these gains can be considered as conservative.

1 Example RRP based on Open License

Table 4 The business value of Windows NT Workstation 4.0

Appendix A – Methodology Used for Calculating Reliability Gains

The basis for arriving at the Reliability gains required the combination of raw data and assumptions, which are detailed below. All calculations are based on "worst case" data and therefore represent the bare minimum gains that are achievable

Categorizing Usage

For the purposes of arriving at a 'fair and reasonable' estimate of any potential reliability or performance gains, it is necessary to take account of varying levels of daily PC usage amongst different types of users. In the tables below each job category has had a specific set of variables attributed to it in order to provide a typical profile of PC usage.

Reliability

The tables below describe the cost of end user downtime as a function of job type and estimated corresponding PC usage.

The method used to calculate the downtime is based on the following data points:

Reliability Study by Sofres INTERSEARCH that concluded that Windows NT Workstation 4.0 was 3 less likely to experience serious system stoppage and thus three times more reliable than Windows 95 or Windows 98
User type and consequent level of PC usage will yield different results
Assumes that an average Windows 95 or Windows 98 user will reboot once a day

Table 5 Windows 95/98 estimated monthly downtime

Table 6 Windows NT Workstation 4.0 estimted monthly downtime

Other key data points are:

The "Median Wage" data was derived from the most recent survey of domestic US wages by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (1996 National Occupational Employment and Wage Data).
"Estimated PC Hours/day" are a Microsoft estimate based on informally gathered data
"Reboots/month" are a Microsoft worst case estimate and are directly related to the level of PC usage
"Reboot duration" is based on average cycle times
"Monthly Cost / Reboot" represents the end user downtime cost and is derived by multiplying the total duration of reboot events over a month by the hourly salary.
"Annual Cost" is the downtime cost per user per year

Table 7 Windows 95/Windows 98 Reliability Data

Table 8 Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Reliability Data

Appendix B – Frequently Asked Questions

Q1 I just spent 3 years deploying Windows 95 – was that the wrong decision?

Windows 95 was not the wrong decision – 3 years ago the most important decision was to make the move to 32-bit Windows. However, today, business needs have changed and as a result, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is better suited to the demanding business environment because of its superior Reliability, Performance, Security and industry support.

Q2 What customers are using Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today?

An increasing number of customers use Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today. There are many new case studies currently being written which will be posted on the web along with the existing case studies. The list can be found on the web at https://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/

Q3 What types of customers are seeing the benefits you refer to in this paper?

Businesses of all sizes, industries, and geographies are realizing the benefits today. Contact your local Microsoft representative to arrange to talk to another Microsoft customer.

Q4 I've heard that I should simply wait for Windows 2000 Professional – what should I do?

The best business decision you can make is to maximize the returns you get from your IT assets in the most effective way, and today that is achieved by deploying Windows NT Workstation 4.0. By waiting for Windows 2000 Professional you are not realizing the benefits you can achieve today, and every day until you deploy Windows 2000 Professional.

Q5 You are telling me to request Windows NT Workstation 4.0 on new machines, yet my installed base is Windows 95. This is going to create very difficult situation managing a mixed Windows 9x and Windows NT Workstation environment.

Not true. A recent survey of over 150 companies by Zona Research concluded that managing a mixed 32-bit Windows environment did not increase costs or complexity. Furthermore, by introducing Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today you are setting the stage for a smoother migration to Windows 2000 Professional later.

Q6 I'm told that I shouldn't apply Service Pack 4 – what do you recommend?

Service Pack 4 (SP4) contains fixes and Year 2000 updates for Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Microsoft recommends that you carefully evaluate whether you need these enhancements and then thoroughly test SP4 before conducting widespread deployment.

Q7 I've heard that Windows NT Workstation 4.0 lacks key features for Laptop users – is this true?

This was previously true, however with the improved support for key Laptops features such as Power Management and PC Card swapping from PC OEMs and 3rd parties, customers can now standardize on 1 version of Windows operating system throughout the organization.

Appendix C – Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Web Resources

The list below summarizes further information that is available on the Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 web site as at December 1998.

Windows NT Workstation TCO
Windows NT Workstation Performance
Windows NT Workstation on Laptops
Windows NT Workstation Reliability
Windows NT Workstation Security
Managing a Mixed Windows 32-bit Environment
Windows NT Workstation Compatibility
Windows NT Workstation System Preparation Tool
Improved Connectivity with Windows NT Services for Unix
Windows NT Workstation Service Pack 4
Windows NT Workstation 4.0 to Windows 2000 Professional Migration
Windows 2000 Ready PC Program
Trial version of Windows NT Workstation – Business Readiness Kit
Video on "Why Windows NT Workstation today?"
Year 2000 Information
Customer Case Studies