Is Windows 7 a Panacea for Vista — or Pure Puffery?

On the drive into work this morning, I heard a pundit on the radio discussing the upcoming launch of Microsoft’s latest OS, Windows 7.

“People just aren’t very excited about operating systems anymore,” he lamented.

Indeed, they aren’t, and especially not after the doozy Microsoft unloaded on the world the last go-around.

But it’s more than just Vista aftershocks. While Windows 7 is a welcome release, the average worker doesn’t care what he’s using, as long as it works.

And for it to work, it takes commitment on a company’s part, not just a superior product. Here’s my take on how to get average working folks excited about technology:

1. Training: A speedy, less buggy operating system is still a headache if a user doesn’t know his way around it. It’s just a quicker, smoother headache. Show your workers the basics up front. It’s a cheaper solution, and it’s wiser.

More importantly, investing in training has a residual effect of building morale and pride. If you give employees the tools, most will use them.

2. Support: As I have said in earlier posts, you cannot expect initial training to cover the entire application suite or operating system. Ongoing how-to support and training reinforce what employees learned early on.

Providing employees with a support outlet is critical for minimizing downtime and so-called “shadow support.” Without such support, for example, where will your employees go when they are stuck with a technology question? They will fruitlessly search Microsoft’s help files, ask a colleague, or devise clunky workarounds. We know from research that combing through help files wastes hours of time, tapping colleagues doubles the downtime, and sloppy workarounds often come back to bite you.