No need to learn Vista - yet

Most financial institutions are investigating use of Microsoft's newest addition to its software stable - but the pace of change is more andante than allegro.

"There is very little uptake of Vista so far," said Martin Smith, a director at recruitment firm Anson McCade. "[Firms] are waiting to see what [Vista] can really offer. Overall, people are still reasonably happy with XP."

A de-motivator is the level of technical work required to upgrade.

"Updating the software would be a major program of work," said an official close to trading operations. "There is a significant amount of integration work involved."

A major technical obstacle is the amount of memory need to run Vista. It is estimated Vista needs about double the memory or (RAM) which for would require many firms to update the hardware to accommodate Vista. Such an upgrade on a company-wide level could require quite a large investment.

"There can be a catalyst for making the change," said the official. Radical changes, such as relocation plans or hardware upgrades would make the move to Vista timely and more manageable. "Those are the opportunities to explore a move to Vista."

Today knowledge of Vista is not a skill in high demand for recruitment, noted Smith.

In the near future, however, there may be a slight and short-term increase in demand for Vista-savvy technologies when upgrades do start, said the official.

"There is always a 'small blip' in the hiring when there are few IT staffers with knowledge of the new software."