Windows 10 is next step on Coats plc's roadmap, following shift to Office 365, Azure and Intune

Coats plc CIO Richard Cammish says that at least 1,000 of its mobile users will be moving to Windows 10

Upgrading to Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 10, is next on the agenda of the world's largest manufacturer of thread and needlecraft supplies, Coats plc, according to its, CIO Richard Cammish.

Cammish told Computing that the firm's relationship with Microsoft had gone from strength to strength since he had joined Coats plc in March 2011.

"When I first joined the organisation, every week I was asked the question ‘when are we going to move away from this wretched email system' [Lotus Notes], and I had to tell them that we didn't have a business case to do it," he said.

But by October 2012, Cammish said the firm explored what it could do with Microsoft, who it already had a relationship with.

"We looked at what was possible with email and unified communications. When we saw the efforts to move, and the costs and potential benefits, I was able to go to the management board and get approval to proceed," he said.

By the end of July 2013, the firm had moved 7,500 mailboxes from Lotus Notes to Office 365, and this then triggered an interest in other unified communications capabilities.

"We now have a highly sophisticated integrated unified communications capability with enterprise voice built into it," Cammish said.

Next, the firm moved its processing to Microsoft Azure. Cammish said that Microsoft took a keen interest in Coats plc as it was a mid-sized manufacturing company that was "moving quickly".

Coats plc's desktop systems are mainly Windows 7 PCs, but Cammish said that the firm is going to be looking at products like Microsoft'a Intune mobile device management system to create a remote desktop capability.

"So rather than move people from Windows 7 to Windows 10, we're going to move them to a network device - a screen and a keyboard - we're not going to move [them] to Windows 10 at all, because we're going to virtualise," he said.

However, at least half of the company's 2,000 mobile workers will be moving towards Windows 10 over the next 12 months, he said.