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Apogee taking the consultative approach to Windows 11 migrations
Customers are wrestling with budget and resource issues, and using the end of support for Windows 10 as a threat is not the right approach for the channel to take
The end of support for Windows 10 is coming, but significant numbers of customers are yet to embark on a migration to Windows 11, providing a clear role for the channel to support and assist those moves.
When support ends in October, the pressure will intensify on businesses continuing to use an operating system that will increase their exposure to risks, threatening to undermine cyber insurance agreements.
The need for migration and upgrades is also a challenging one for the channel to handle, with it tempting to use the stick of increased risk to beat users into making changes.
The alternative, which can be seen in the approach taken by Apogee, is to lead customers through the options, and provide consultancy that is supportive and avoids leaning into using the October deadline as a threat to spur spending.
Sam Proctor, head of the managed IT services division at Apogee, said there were a few factors that were impacting the market dynamics and necessitating a consultative approach.
He added that although the end of support had been well published and many across the channel had been banging the drum, there continued to be a need for further education.
“The cut-off date for Windows 11 is 14 October this year,” said Proctor. “In terms of the uptake on where we’re at right now, in terms of people transitioning from Windows 10 to Windows 11, whether that be new hardware, or whether that be updating existing hardware, the uptake is probably not as quick as we would have expected it to be.”
Budget concerns
The reasons for that include budget and a lack of resources to be able to handle a migration, and the channel needs to be mindful of the issues users are facing.
“I’ve seen a lot of organisations today either not have budgets reduced or not have the right amount of budgets that enable them to purchase new devices,” he added. “Budgets may be in use on other bits of other areas of the organisation and not wanting to upgrade PC hardware.
“What we have seen many organisations want to do is, instead of the typical Capex purchasing that they’ve been doing in the past, they’ve looked to either rent or lease their devices under more of an operating Opex model moving forward, to allow them to not have the large burden of capital expenditure up front.”
On the resource front, some customers have reduced their engineering headcount, and don’t have the hands available to support a significant upgrade roll-out across the organisation.
“The approach that we are seeing from many organisations that we speak to is to look to outsource that to organisations to be able to manage those roll-outs on their behalf, and effectively have more of a hands-off approach,” he said.
“That’s obviously balanced with the budget – they will still need resources internally themselves, but we’ve seen an increasing shift in the market to that approach compared to what we have seen in previous years, where organisations will take much more on themselves.”
Encouraging movement
Some customers continue to stall, or are even unaware of the need to migrate, but Proctor is keen to encourage movement because of the dangers of opting to remain on Windows 10.
“It wouldn’t be recommended for a number of reasons,” he said. “One of the number of reasons why it wouldn’t be recommended is because of security and cyber security accreditations. Windows 10, as of 14 October 2025, will not have the right and relevant security updates that will comply with cyber security regulations, which will be things such as cyber essentials and cyber essentials plus. That can have an impact on organisations’ cyber insurance, and it will push the cost of that.
“It’s extremely important that devices are secure on the most up to date operating model to ensure they are getting those right and relevant security patch updates as and when they arise,” said Proctor.
The decision not to use the end of support deadline as a threat to spur spending is not just because of budgetary limitations, but also as a result of increased customer calls for extending the lifecycle of their hardware.
“We spend a lot of time talking to clients about how we can help them discover what they have through our assessment tools,” he said. “We’ll spend time looking at the devices they currently have within their environment at the moment, looking at the health of those devices, looking at the BIOS level of those devices, RAM, battery, etc, if they can be upgraded to Windows 11 or not. And when they are upgraded to Windows 11, how they will run.”
Proctor added that giving customers more options allowed them to make a migration to Windows 11 with the option to use existing hardware and then give options for future upgrades to gain access to AI-capable devices when the business was ready. “We can just upgrade operating systems, and we can help you to build out a future and at your pace,” he said.
“We have to continue to develop long-term relationships with our clients, provide them with insight, provide them with thought leadership to help them take the direction that is right for their organisation, at a pace which is suitable for them,” said Proctor.
