NASHUA, NH -- (Marketwire) -- 02/04/13 -- ConverterTechnology, provider of software and services to help enterprises upgrade to new versions of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office without the risks, costs, productivity loss, and headaches that typically arise from enterprise deployments, today makes available a whitepaper by IDC, Why Sticking with Windows XP is a Bad Idea. In addition, ConverterTechnology offers five critical steps for organizations upgrading their desktops from Windows XP and Office 2003 that can ensure the success of the deployment process.

The whitepaper, sponsored by Microsoft, takes a deep look at the operational costs of Windows XP within large organizations, and compares and contrasts those costs against operational costs associated with Windows 7. Organizations of all sizes that are aware of Microsoft's planned termination of support for Windows XP and Office 2003, are accelerating their migration activities.

Even without technical support for Microsoft, the complexity of a full desktop migration requires significant planning starting with devising a deployment approach -- all departments at the same time, departmental, or phased roll out -- to ensure success.

Shawn Allaway, president of ConverterTechnology, notes, "A total desktop migration is no small undertaking or something to take lightly. The objective is to complete the migration on time, on budget, and with minimal impact to users, which includes minimizing inherent risks such as file and application incompatibilities. However, success necessitates a clear understanding of how an organization functions, the level of deployment required, and the tools and methods most appropriate to support the migration effort."

Critical Steps for Success
There are five steps for organizations upgrading that can ensure the success of the deployment process.

• Plan and discover the enterprise environment - Using automated tools, manual inventory methods or a combination of the two, organizations should discover and quantify the file and application landscape to better understand the project scope and to identify areas of potential risks.
• Scope the project - Using filtering criteria -- last used data, frequency of use, or end user nomination -- organizations can define the quantity and specific files and applications that will require testing and remediation. Standard housekeeping to remove old archived files and to rationalize the removal of little used applications will in turn reduce costs and time.
• Convert and migrate - Convert most files and applications in a bulk fashion, while elevating most business critical and other at-risk files and applications to the help desk or central service for remediation. Automated tools can dramatically speed up the process and reduce costs.
• Test - This strategic step, often overlooked or under-valued, ensures that critical applications and files work properly and as intended.
• Roll out - At the conversion to production stage, all departments are moved to the new platform and desktops are converted to full production mode. Users can still address broken file links, out of scope files, and other post-roll out issues.

Ease the Migration with Automated Conversion Tools
ConverterTechnology, can automate many of the labor-intensive application and file discovery, testing, and conversion functions associated with large-scale migrations, so the process can occur quickly and with a higher level of reliability and accuracy.

Customers undertaking full desktop upgrades can expand ConverterTechnology's file conversion capabilities with greater risk mitigation from compatibility assessments of applications across desktop, server, virtual, and web application estates. Automatic application testing and remediation, application packaging, and application virtualization conversion accelerates readiness by allowing customers to easily find and fix compatibility issues in minutes.

Allaway notes, "By quickly identifying files and applications requiring testing and remediation, ConverterTechnology's solutions can efficiently find and fix problems, which saves time and money."

About ConverterTechnology
ConverterTechnology is the only company to provide a comprehensive, automated Microsoft® Windows and Office migration solution that manages, tracks, and reports on the entire process. The company's innovative suite of tools, such as OfficeConverter™, DiscoverIT, Click2Fix™ and LinkLab™, bring tremendous value to the entire upgrade process, including planning, workflow, discovering files, identifying compatibility issues and remediation. Founded in 1997, ConverterTechnology has helped millions of users at Fortune 500 companies, global financial and pharmaceutical corporations, and the world's most renowned theme park, identify, analyze and fix compatibility errors before they occur, accelerating time to deployment. ConverterTechnology is headquartered in Nashua, N.H., with offices in Europe and Australia. For more information, please visit http://www.convertertechnology.com.