14 DAY TRIAL // Back in late 2012 when Microsoft officially introduced Windows 8, a lot of companies complained that Microsoft’s new modern operating system brought too many changes, causing confusion among inexperienced adopters who were used to the classic Windows 7 working environment.
Now the CIO of KPMG, a professional services firm providing audit, tax, and advisory solutions to customers, says that the move to Windows 8 will be delayed for a little bit longer because it “is too much.”
Edel McGrath talked to Computing about the new modern operating system, explaining that, while the company upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7 in the last couple of years, some newer technologies have already been deployed, including Office 2013 and Internet Explorer 11.
As far as Windows 8 is concerned, however, the company will delay the switch, as it’s afraid that the changes it brings could affect productivity of a number of employees.
“We need to ensure we are disrupting the business as little as possible. Bringing in Windows 8 and mandating that as an operating system is too much. So we've decided to put it into the app store, and it wil be ready soon for those employees who want to take it,” McGrath said.
“I've accepted that we'll have to run a dual standard for Windows but I'm not prepared to take the [whole] business on that journey; I think it's too much, too quickly,” she added. “It looks too different, although you can get used to it.”
KPMG is not the only company that criticized Microsoft for the amount of changes it made to Windows 8, as even Redmond’s closest partners decided to blast the operating system because it was so focused on the touch environment.
“The promotion of the product is really focused on the keyboard, and the users really don’t know how to maximize the touch experience,” Acer president Jim Wong said. “It was disappointing, but we have to work closely with Microsoft to get customer feedback on what works and what doesn’t.”
At the same time, Acer leadership team has also criticized Microsoft for betting so much on touch-capable devices and even badmouthed the company for investing in its own tablets capable of running the new operating system.
“They are doing something to kill the whole ecosystem. They have all this cash. They could kill everybody,” Acer’s CEO said in October 2012. “Maybe they think they need to do something aggressive to compete with Apple and not rely on brands like Acer.”