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As Microsoft Corp. prepares to sell the business version of its Windows Vista operating system, Dell Inc. is beefing up its IT service offerings to compete for customers with Hewlett-Packard Co.

Consumer versions of Vista won't go on sale until Jan. 30, but PC vendors will start selling Vista-powered computers to businesses today, including the latest version of Windows, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007. The prospect of customers rushing to upgrade their hardware to handle the often-delayed operating system has pushed many PC vendors to expand their IT services.

Lenovo Group Ltd. today announced that its ThinkVantage suite of PC productivity tools will cover Windows Vista Enterprise. Corporate IT managers use ThinkVantage applications to help automate system recovery, wireless connectivity and network security.

Dell made a bid for some of those same users, offering an online application called the Dell Readiness Advisor to indicate needed hardware updates and using "custom factory integration" to load Vista on new PCs before they leave the warehouse. Dell also announced a "Vista ROI Tool" that lets users track their returns on investment for the new operating system over a three-year period.

Those services are available for customers who license Vista for five or more seats on server and storage products, desktops and notebooks.

Hardware vendors expect their sales to jump with Vista's release because customers will need more powerful PCs to handle the improved security, unified messaging and translucent Aero windows.

"To realize a lot of the functionality of what Vista has to offer, we're recommending dual-core processors, 2GB of memory, bigger hard drives and widescreen displays," said Kevin Libert, senior manager of the Microsoft Alliance at Dell.

That promise of increased sales is one reason Dell has committed to recommending products such as Microsoft's Exchange 2007 instead of competing products like IBM's Lotus Notes and Domino or Novell Inc.'s GroupWise.

Despite such alliances, Microsoft has seen its relationship with PC vendors become strained as it missed several deadlines for shipping the operating system. Many PC vendors now fear their holiday sales will slump as customers hold out for the consumer release. In return, Microsoft has tried to assuage the problem by offering coupons to customers, assuring them free upgrades to Vista in 2007 for PCs they buy before the new year.

Microsoft may have already waited too long, however, since users typically adopt new technology slowly. In the business world, Vista adoptions will likely begin with a trickle of early adopters on Nov. 30, and swell to include nearly two-thirds of users within three years, Dell said.

That scenario is drawn from Dell's experience in selling computers and services to 5 million of its customers as they've migrated to successive versions of Microsoft's Exchange e-mail server over the past five years. Today, 60% of that customer base is using the most recent version -- Exchange 2003 -- while 30% still use Exchange 2000, and fewer than 10% use the original Exchange version 5.5, Libert said.