Dos and Donts for Vista and Office 2007

Written by Peter Coffee; Designed by Brian Moore

Dont talk about the products. Ninety-eight percent of PC users who are asked what they use will say Windows. Not Windows 98, not Windows 2000, not Windows XP. Identification of Office versions among

Focus on opportunities to improve your process. Dont attempt technology push. Build capability pull. Identify distinctive competencies of Vista (strong security features make it suited to use by contractors and temporary emplo

Dont encourage or support inappropriate upgrades to existing hardware. Even on a fully Windows-capable system, eWEEK Labs recommends a clean install rather than a more time-consuming and less reliable upgrade operation. Machines that lack adequate hardwa

Walk the walk of making sure that people get what they need do their jobs. Make sure that a Vista upgrade isnt (accurately) perceived as the easiest way to address a long-standing problem of hardware inadequate for a task. Minimize peoples temptation to

Dont think you can control what users hear or when they hear it. Vista and Office 07 will get the best promotional effort that money can buy. Make sure you know at least as much about the products capabilities as your users will be told; make sure you

Expect long-standing IT frustrations to boil over, as Vista and Office 07 come to market with claims of new capabilities that may already be part of your environment. If a department justifies a Windows or Office 07 request by citing a cap

If a department is prepared to undertake disruptive user retraining and to deal with compatibility issues, there are other paths to the future that they might want to explore besides the one thats defined by Microsoft. This is the time for you to identif

When things are getting shaken up anyway, take advantage of peoples increased tolerance for a little unpredictability. Workflow automation, centralized data backup or any number of other useful process initiatives that couldnt get over the hump of peopl