With Microsoft (MSFT) slated to stop supporting its 12-year old Windows XP operating system next April, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) is offering product, technology and financial assistance to businesses transitioning to Windows 7 and Windows 8.

The initiative is prompted by HP's internal data indicating some 40 percent of business customers are running XP with no migration plans in place to upgrade to a more current operating system.

Microsoft is scheduled to stop support the XP operating system on April 8, 2014. To assist businesses that want to migrate to Window 7 or Windows 8, HP is touting its OS optimized desktop, laptop, all-in-one and tablet lineups, pointing to its roster of trained Microsoft experts and highlighting its training tools designed to ease the process.

“Many businesses have been avoiding the XP migration, fearing lack of compatibility and loss of productivity during the transition process,” said Enrique Lores, HP Commercial PCs senior vice president and general manager. “HP’s broad portfolio of products and services are both comprehensive and cost-effective, while HP Financial Services (HPFS) allows for minimal upfront investment, providing businesses a worry-free, simple migration from XP to a more recent Windows OS.”

HP is deploying the following services to help businesses transition off of XP to Windows 7 or Windows 8:

“We are excited about the investments HP is making to help customers adopt the benefits of a modern Windows experience,” said Erwin Visser, Microsoft Windows general manager. “By working with a company such as HP, which has hardware and services solutions in place, businesses can almost immediately start realizing the benefits of Windows 8 and Windows 7.”