Technology leader helps organisations ensure a smooth and cost-efficient migration to IE8

London, 22 July 2010 – ChangeBASE Limited, the global leader in automated application compatibility testing and remediation, today announces the August launch of a product to enhance website rendering functionality for Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) to complement its existing web application testing package. This latest Plug-in for browsers enables organisations to speed-up their migrations to IE8 by overcoming this last compatibility hurdle.

With the launch of Windows 7 and IE8 as the embedded browser, compatibility for web-based applications and websites is crucial to ensure a smooth and cost-efficient migration, as well as long-term staff productivity. Research by ChangeBASE shows that in 2003 a typical large organisation had just one web application for every 10 native applications installed, however in 2010 that ratio stands at 1.2 web applications for each native installed application. This trend towards adoption of web-based applications makes it critical for organisations to be able to ensure compatibility.

ChangeBASE worked with 14 Fortune 100 organisations to understand their issues around browser compatibility and this new product is based on their extensive feedback. The solution covers all the pertinent issues of web application compatibility with this latest enhancement also catering for websites, intranets and extranets. It is the only solution on the market able to address the entire spectrum of IE8 compatibility challenges.

The compatibility challenges facing organisations migrating to IE8 fall into two categories, both of which ChangeBASE’s latest offering can address:

Compatibility of web-based applications that need to integrate with the browser to enable functionality – for example where services have been deprecated or restricted within IE that are required by the application, such as DEP/NX
Rendering issues where  a website, rather than an application, may not render or display correctly or certain buttons or links may not work
John Tate, Managing Director, ChangeBASE says; “With IDC and Forrester both recently predicting that Windows 7 will become the new standard for business PCs in the next 12 months and Gartner encouraging an immediate move from IE6 to IE8 for security reasons, organisations globally are now looking to ensure their web-based applications and websites are compatible. Unlike other application compatibility software vendors who are only now starting to tackle the complex and pressing issue of what they perceive to be the legacy issues based around web applications, ChangeBASE has effectively been solving the far more complex and pressing challenge of communication with internal resources including intranets, extranets, internal and external facing websites with considerable success.”

SCC, Europe’s largest independent technology solutions provider, has extensive experience in helping organisations deal with the challenge of application compatibility. “At SCC we have used AOK extensively to test thousands of our customers’ applications for Windows 7 compatibility and application integration with IE8 is now becoming as important as application integration with Windows 7,” says Chris Hall, Programme Manager for Software & Solutions.

“We are now seeing real momentum in the migration to Windows 7 and the browser-focused testing and fixing capabilities within AOK is key to the success of these projects. We’re finding that the majority of organisations are still on IE6 and to migrate to IE8 they need to ensure that all compatibility checks are completed for both IE7 and IE8. Being able to do this automatically with AOK, we’ve calculated that we can save our customers over 50 per cent on the price offered by solutions which focus on manual testing and fixing. We’re always happy to showcase the technology to any organisation looking to migrate their applications to Windows 7 or IE8 because we know it works.”

US based partner, ConverterTechnology has been engaged and actively promoting ChangeBASE to its customers for the last year. “ConverterTechnology was the first partner to represent ChangeBASE in the United States and after extensive due diligence, we chose AOK over the competition for a variety of reasons. One of the key reasons was that AOK aligns and integrates perfectly with our own automated Office file conversion toolset (OfficeConverter),” Says Jeff LaBombard, Global Alliance Manager, ConverterTechnology Inc. “One of the key functions of the OfficeIE module is the ability to identify web-application compatibility issues for IE7 and IE8 as well Office 2007 and 2010 issues. All our customers testify that AOK’s IE functionality addresses all the pertinent issues of web application compatibility.

“Now, ChangeBASE has further enhanced their IE offering, to not just solve web-application issues, but also tackle even more pressing issues our customers face – such as the ability to look at rendering and presentation issues of websites. With this new functionality, as well as their proven web-application compatibility solution, it places AOK head and shoulders above the competition and demonstrates ChangeBASE really are listening to what our customers urgently need and want.”

Tate concludes; “Over the last year we have seen a significant increase in organisations looking to migrate their application estate or sections of it to various browsers. Being able to automatically test for compatibility and subsequently fix any issues found is key to being able to deliver the migration. With AOK’s latest enhancements, organisations can speed up the time it takes to migrate those applications whilst making significant cost-savings.”

ChangeBASE will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday 5th August at 5pm BST to discuss the challenges associated with migration to IE8. For more information please contact [email protected].

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About ChangeBASE
ChangeBASE AOK is the market leader in automated compatibility software enabling organizations to simplify and speed up the time it takes to test, remediate and manage the migration process between operating systems or deployment environments. The company has developed a suite of software applications which bring tangible benefits and reduced costs to organizations across the globe. For more information, please visit; http://www.changebase.com/.

References:
IDC Survey “Deployment Opportunities for Windows 7” by Matt Healey, Al Gillen, and Cushing Anderson, Doc #223694, June 2010.
Forrester Research 2010
 
For further information, please contact:
Kate Hyslop / Emma Bridgeman / Steve Douthwaite
Rocket PR
Tel: 08453 707 024
Email: [email protected]