Microsoft touts IE9 as “the best browser for the enterprise”

The Internet Explorer team, even during a full-scale dash towards IE10, is pushing IE9 on the enterprise with every ounce of PR muscle it has.

The group commissioned a Forrester study to track what the benefits and costs involved with a company moving to Internet Explorer 9. As the study was paid for by Microsoft, it is hard to take its every word as gospel, to put it mildly, but there were a few interesting bits in the results that are worth discussion.

Forrester executed a ‘Total Economic Impact’ study to check into what result a major company moving to Internet Explorer 9 can expect. Not surprisingly, given how bad other versions of Internet Explorer are, and perhaps as the study was paid for by Microsoft, the findings were positive.

The study dealt with a composite company of 50,000 machines, and found the following to be true:

TNW spoke to Microsoft on the matter, and asked for a clear ‘per head’ break down of benefits, but was told that Forrester does not do such things. But we can do the math. Simple division yields a $123.75 benefit, and a $36.62 cost per computer. Again with rough figures, that is a $87.13 total per computer benefit. Make of that what you will.

Despite the study being bought and paid for by its recipient, it does not feel to be too far off the mark. Versions of Internet Explorer prior to 9 are weak, and hard to use with the modern Internet. And IE9 does have several compatibility tools that keep old applications functioning, allowing certain companies to upgrade with few issues.

It feels a bit asinine to us to ascribe a dollar figure to a browser being ‘better’ than its predecessors, but there you have it. Yes, IE9 is better than IE8, IE7, and certainly IE6. Now you even have a currency amount on how much better it is, if you cared.

Who else wants to play with IE10?