While the worldwide economy is showing signs of recovery from the financial crisis of the past years, fact is that cost is a key fact to consider when it comes down to the adoption of new technology. Windows 7 makes no exception to this rule, with the operating system bound to have businesses that are upgrading pay for more than just the price tag. Microsoft is now offering a free tool designed to permit corporate customers to calculate just how much will embracing the latest iteration of the Windows client cost them.

In this regard, Windows 7 ROI Tool Lite is advertised as a resource capable of showing companies just how much they stand to save by upgrading to Windows 7. Unlike end users, corporate customers need to take into consideration the Total Cost of Ownership for new technology, as well as get estimates on their Return on Investment.

Windows 7 ROI Tool Lite “helps organizations assess their current PC total cost of ownership and the potential benefits from implementing Windows 7 to help lower costs, improve service levels and drive business productivity. Enter requested information, indicated in yellow. Default research metrics provided regarding current opportunities and potential savings based on Microsoft studies of first deployments, and Alinean research – 2009,” reads the description of the tool.

The Windows 7 ROI Tool Lite will indeed help IT departments estimate the TCO and ROI associated with the successor of Windows Vista. However, companies should always consider a set of best practices for reducing TCO on top of simply adopting Windows 7, in order to reduce expenditures.

“The Windows 7 Return on Investment (ROI) Tool, powered by Alinean, can help you evaluate your current PC total cost of ownership (TCO) and identify the potential benefits of deploying the Windows 7 operating system to help lower costs, improve service levels, and increase productivity,” explained Stephen L. Rose, senior community manager, Windows IT Pro Client.