"Cost Model: Migration to Windows Vista and Windows 7”

We expect no difference in cost to migrate from Windows XP directly to either Windows Vista or Windows 7. Organizations that deploy Windows Vista will spend 66% to 75% less to get to Windows 7 as they spent migrating from XP to Vista, but will spend more overall because they did two migrations.
Key Findings
A migration from Windows 2000 or XP to Windows Vista or Windows 7 will be three to four times the cost of upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 because of application remediation and replacement cost, and because existing PCs will need to be migrated instead of just migrating via PC replacement.
Our model shows that migration costs would be $1,035 to $1,930 per user to move from Windows 2000 or XP to Windows Vista or Windows 7, and $339 to $510 per user to move from Windows Vista to Windows 7, based on our assumptions.
Migrating to Windows Vista and then to Windows 7 will incur higher total migration costs than skipping Vista, but Vista users incurred less risk of holding XP too long, and can move to Windows 7 more leisurely.
The cost to move well-managed environments can be half the cost to move less-managed environments.