According to a recent Forrester survey, 7 percent of respondents either had already begun migrating to Windows 7 or will do so in the next 12 months. And while 59 percent of those respondents plan to migrate to Windows 7 sometime in the future, those who have already put the new OS in place are reaping benefits, IT Business Edge contributor Rob Enderle says in his latest blog post.

Enderle takes a look at two large businesses, Baker Tilly, which did a large-scale deployment, and Del Monte Foods, which has a trial under way.

Baker Tilly installed 2,300 Windows 7 machines in about four weeks and says it is tracking nearly $200 per PC in expected annual savings from the new systems. This savings number comes from energy conservation, a sharp reduction in support costs and reduced image-management costs. The company did run into a compatibility issue with an old Sun financial application but it is circumventing that by running the application on about 2 percent of its systems that remain on XP until that can be resolved by updating the product or hosting it.

Del Monte had similar problems with custom applications, but the IT guys, Enderle says, were "gushing" about the new OS. Nintey-percent of the company's technology arsenal are laptops. With Windows 7, the IT guys say they are seeing performance improvements including better battery life, lower heat and overall better reliability.

Enderle says the biggest unexpected benefit for companies migrating early to Windows 7 is a sense of employee pride. The move has even improved employee morale.

Don't forget about the resources in the Knowledge Network, as well.

• Windows 7 Features Checklist
• Windows 7 Pocket Guide Excerpt