Major Retailer Accelerates Windows 11 Migration with Collective IQ®
Migrating to a new operating system can be compared to renovating a house: you may be able to postpone it for a while, but eventually, you’ll have to face the project — and the relief only comes once it’s complete.
While a home renovation can be planned with some flexibility, a Windows 11 migration has a fixed deadline and carries high risks. Every detail matters: compatible hardware, available disk space, drivers, and critical software that all need to align.
Without the right visibility, infrastructure teams end up spending countless hours on manual checks, spreadsheets, and fragmented reports to assess device readiness. The problem is that this effort not only consumes valuable IT resources but also drives up costs and exposes the business to failures during the upgrade.
Contextual visibility and intelligent automation make all the difference. Instead of discovering incompatibilities only after errors occur, IT teams can anticipate risks, fix compliance gaps, and dramatically reduce the likelihood of problems during migration. And that was precisely the path chosen by one of the largest retail chains in Brazil.
When Microsoft® announced that support for Windows® 10 would end in October 2025, this retailer realized it needed to act fast. With over 28,000 devices in operation and a lean team of just 20 IT and infrastructure professionals, the migration to Windows 11 posed a massive challenge.
The IT team knew that this process traditionally consumed many weeks of manual auditing, cross-referencing reports, and performing individual hardware assessments.
The risks were clear: any mistake in compatibility validation could result in failed updates, productivity loss, missed deadlines, and unexpected costs.
The Challenge
Before using Collective IQ®, the team had already faced issues in previous migrations:
• Lack of visibility into which devices were truly ready for an upgrade.
• Manual checks required for CPU, memory, disk space, and other requirements.
• Incompatible devices only identified after failed upgrade attempts, leading to rework and employee frustration.
With the deadline approaching, they needed a smarter, more proactive way to manage the migration.
The Turning Point with Collective IQ®
That’s when the company adopted Collective IQ®. With Collective IQ® DEX and its AlmaPredict® functionality, the team was able to run a complete analysis in seconds, answering critical questions such as:
• “Which devices will deliver a poor user experience running Windows 11 within the next 30 days?”
• “Which laptops and desktops fail to meet minimum CPU, memory, and disk requirements and thus require upgrade or replacement?”
Automatically, AlmaPredict generated a list of all incompatible devices, pointing to the root causes: whether unsupported CPUs, insufficient storage or memory, outdated BIOS, or other non-compatible software.
Results Achieved
With this instant visibility, the IT team:
- Saved 4 person-months of manual efforts using spreadsheets and reports.
- Dramatically reduced migration risks by fixing all potential incompatibilities before upgrades.
- Planned hardware replacements only where truly necessary, avoiding unnecessary expenses.
- Ensured a positive end-user experience, with no performance drops or unexpected downtime post migration.
In practical terms, an evaluation process that would have taken weeks was completed in just a few days, allowing the company to plan its Windows 11 migration in a structured, reduced risk, non-disruptive way.
Conclusion
This retailer’s case shows how Almaden Collective IQ® goes beyond basic compatibility checks: it transforms a migration into an intelligent, predictable, and secure process.
Instead of racing against the clock or firefighting, the IT team was able to anticipate issues, minimize risks, and focus on strategic decisions.
Want to see how Almaden® Collective IQ® and AlmaPredict™ can support your company in its Windows 11 migration?
Get in touch and discover how to turn a high-risk project into a success story!
