One third of IT managers struggling with XP SP2

A third of IT managers have admitted that they have "no idea what to expect" when deploying Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 2, new research has claimed.

According to a survey conducted by independent research firm InsightExpress for IT support firm SupportSoft, the remainder expect that the SP2 upgrade will dramatically increase the number of end-user support calls they have to deal with.

The report also found that 63 per cent of the IT managers surveyed believe that SP2 will be the most difficult Windows upgrade ever undertaken. Three per cent said that their "blood pressure rises just thinking about it".

Steve Kleynhans, analyst at Meta Group, warned that help desk staff must be made aware of the changes and provided with training to handle the inevitable initial increase in calls that will follow implementation.

But he added in a statement: "Despite these potential issues, we believe organisations should move as rapidly as possible to implement SP2 across their WinXP systems."

The report surveyed 117 IT managers at companies with 500 or more employees.