Microsoft Launches Windows Vista. Know The Impact To Your Company

As of January 30th, the Windows Vista operating system is available for sale to the public.   Microsoft Windows Vista, the new desktop computer operating system recently released by Microsoft, will replace the very familiar Windows XP.

Computer manufacturers such as Dell, HP, and Panasonic are shipping machines that have Vista preinstalled on them.  If the near future, around late fall, these manufacturers will no longer offer Windows XP as an operating system.

Every corporation will be impacted by this change.  Your organization needs to manage the transition from Windows XP to Vista in order to ensure that your mission critical applications are not adversely affected.

How does this impact our corporation’s Sage applications?

Sage ACCPAC reports:
“Vista is currently going through the process of certification by our QA team and we should have a statement ready at that time.  To date, we haven’t run across any showstoppers yet but customers should install the latest GL 5.4 Service Pack to work with Office’s Excel 2007 for financial reporting.”

Compatibility between Sage ACCPAC products and Vista is in Q & A and Sage has not certified the programs complete compatibility.  Although Sage ACCPAC products may seem to function properly on Windows Vista, there is no certainty that data loss or corruption will not happen. We strongly recommend that you do not install Windows Vista on machines which use Sage ACCPAC or any of its third party products until the Vista operating system is certified.

Sage MAS Division reports:

“The currently shipping versions of Sage MAS 90, Sage MAS 200, Sage MAS 500 ERP systems as well as Sage MAS 200 – SQL Server Edition are not completely compatible with windows Vista.

It is important to note that the compatibility issues with Vista are not isolated to Sage’s accounting software – Vista also impacts many of the third-party products currently working with Sage software, including Crystal Reports® from Business Objects and Microsoft FRx.

The Sage MAS Product Team is currently looking into all third-party programs and other Sage MAS Product software to develop an idea of how long it will take to solve these compatibility issues, and will be posting a Vista Compatibility update on March 1, 2007 on http://www.sagesoftwareonline.com.”

What should I do?

Currently, AXIS and Sage encourages all customers to wait on upgrading to Vista until they can offer full support for Vista. Since Windows Vista is not a supported platform, any issues arising as a result of running Vista will not be supported by Sage or AXIS.  Sage also recommends that any customers contemplating a new computer purchases request Windows XP Professional rather than Windows Vista at this time.

Where can I get more information on Windows Vista?

Windows Vista homepage for general information:  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/default.mspx
Windows Vista Editions for information about the variety of Vista software.  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx

What if I am using Microsoft SQL Server?

The following was taken directly from Sage to ensure total clarity:

Earlier versions of Microsoft SQL Server, including SQL Server 2000 as well as the Desktop MSDE edition, SQL Server 7.0, and SQL Server 6.5, will not be supported on Windows Server "Longhorn" or Windows Vista.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/sqlonvista.mspx

For users of SQL Server 2005, Microsoft plans to support SQL Server 2005 on Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn". Microsoft has not released the required service pack as of this January 30th, 2007. When Microsoft releases the required service pack, Sage will test and ensure compatibility before certifying its applications.

Can other software my company uses be impacted by Vista?

Yes!  Your corporate IT department should check with each software publisher or vendor to ensure compatibility that the software versions being utilized by your company are compatible with Vista before any upgrades of operating systems or new Vista machines are installed in your network.

AXIS strongly recommends that your company become as informed as possible on Windows Vista to ensure changes to your business computing systems are planned, staged, tested and implemented in the smoothest possible manner.

Please do not simply begin adding workstations to your organization that have Windows Vista without having performed the necessary due diligence and planning.  You may even want to ensure that any possible disruption to your business is minimized by purchasing workstations with Windows XP before it becomes discontinued.

Please feel free to contact Axis Integrated Solutions, your trusted advisor, at info@axisglobalpartners.com if you have any questions on the transition to Windows Vista.