Microsoft Corp has botched the positioning of Windows for Workgroups according to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester Research Inc. The view is based on interviews with 50 Fortune 1,000 companies, of which 84% said that they either will not buy Windows for Workgroups, or are unsure if they will. The 16% that said they planned to buy the product were also found not to be using its full potential by limiting installations to small departments and remote sites. The problem is that while Microsoft is trying to position Workgroups as the desktop of choice for companies with networks, Large companies don’t consider Windows for Workgroups appropriate for them. They think it is a low-end competitor to Artisoft Inc’s LANtastic and Novell Inc’s NetWare Lite and more suitable for a dental office than for a pharmaceutical conglomerate. This is the view of Mary Modahl, director of Forrester’s Research Strategy, in her new report Peer Pressure. Disturbingly for Microsoft, two of the three perceived problems with the workgroup offering are unfounded: companies believed that the product does not scale to over 20 users, that it is a serverless network giving them no control over critical data, and that it overlaps with their installed NetWare and cc:Mail. While this last point may be correct, the first two are misconceptions the consultancy feels Microsoft has failed to correct. The outlook is not all bad however: Forrester concludes that despite initial teething problems, most server-based networks in Fortune 1,000 companies will add peer services over the next few years. Whether these are based on Windows for Workgroups depends on Microsoft going out and clearing up the misunderstandings.
