Forrester analyst Sheri McLeish pointed to a variety of factors that are making alternatives to IE more compelling for the enterprise, among them their growing popularity with the average Web user, which has taken market share away from IE.

"Being able to lead on the consumer browser side for desktops gives those people familiarity with those tools and can help push them out into an enterprise setting," she said.

That, coupled with antitrust pressures that will cause Microsoft to ship Windows 7 in Europe without IE8, something the company disclosed Thursday, is giving alternative browsers an opening among enterprise users, McLeish said.

But it will be the enterprise-friendly features -- in areas like installation, provisioning and setting group policies -- that really determine whether companies will use other browsers, she said.

Because of its long history with business software, Microsoft has the needs of the enterprise well in hand. The company offers a host of tools that make it easy for IT departments to install, provision and set group security and other policies for its browser on multiple desktops.