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10 burning questions about Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office is no longer one-size-fits-all, but rather a complicated set of programs users can customize, mix and match. But at what cost?
By John Fontana , Network World , 11/06/2007

Nearly a year ago, Microsoft released Office 2007 to corporate users and so began the slow and methodical evaluation of the software (unless, of course, you were an early adopter).

With migrations to Vista, which is intertwined with Office, slowly looming on the drawing boards for many companies over the next three years and beyond, here’s a look at some of the questions to help pick apart Office and figure out how, when and where it fits into corporate desktop, infrastructure, VoIP and software-as-a service plans, and the target it presents to OpenOffice.org-based suites and online productivity tools popping up on the Web.

The Office 2007 challenge
Microsoft's Office 2007 is more than just a collection of productivity applications — for the first time it includes an extensive array of front-end clients and back-end servers that provide everything from text-editing to call-forwarding.

Challenges Strategies
Get the installed base to move. Why is upgrading to the new Office better than staying on the old Office? Microsoft has to answer this question for users with every revision of its cash-cow duo (Office and Windows). The expanded scope of the entire suite is the umbrella message.
Win users over to the value of the Office System infrastructure. More than ever before, Microsoft can sell Office to IT for its back-end capabilities, such as content management and real-time collaboration. VoIP will be a tough sell, but has knockout-punch power.
Take the document-formatting issue out of the equation. As users consider their productivity application costs and user needs, the availability of translators to convert between OpenDocument Format and Office Open XML will make it easier for companies to defer some desktops to Open Office suites. Microsoft will have to figure out how to use the translators, some of which it is funding via the open source community, to its advantage.
Click to see: Office 2007's challenges

What is different about Office 2007?

Well, this isn’t your father’s office suite. Office 2007, or what Microsoft calls the Office System, comes in eight versions and contains 15 programs, eight servers and seven services or add-ons. Users don’t have to buy or deploy all those pieces, but the days of the Word-Excel-PowerPoint-Access bundle now seem quaint by comparison. With the Office 2007 suite, users can set up content management, integrate with online services, deploy real-time communication tools and other infrastructures using Office system pieces. That means Office is no longer a desktop decision made by the desktop team. It is also an infrastructure decision that ultimately involves IT. And it is a path that must include consideration of how it will integrate with third-party vendors, especially when deployments hit the VoIP level.

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Exchange always came with OutlookBy Dir Bob on November 8, 2007, 4:53 pmIf you owned Exchange your company did not have to buy Office to get Outlook, is what the author meant. Previously, up to and including Exchange Server 2003, you...

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Gary S; I work for aBy Derek L. on November 7, 2007, 4:40 pmGary S; I work for a regional state-run university with well over 1000 users in staff and over 4000 students. I mainly work with the night classes where students...

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Outlook and ExchangeBy Duane on November 7, 2007, 1:00 pmIn the section what's new with Outlook the author states "that Outlook now comes with Office and not Exchange," Outlook has always been part of the Office suite...

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Office 2007By Gary S on November 7, 2007, 10:36 amThe negative press about the migration doesn't seem warranted to me. My company's an SMB with about 50 office users who received no training for Office 2007 other...

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RE: 10 burning questions about Microsoft Office 2007By Microsoft Subnet on November 6, 2007, 6:19 pmWhat are your Office 2007 adoption plans? Take this poll. Survey Polls - Take Our Poll

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