June 19, 2008
Why Are You Still Holding On to Microsoft Office?
IBM recently announced the commercial-grade, general availability of Lotus Symphony a suite of free, software tools for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets and presentations.Even in the midst of free or low cost software Microsoft continues to have the lion's share of Office Suites. Why?
Well, if "everyone" is using Word, are you going to use something else? Even with new versions of Word, the ones that you get with a "docx" extension - it's a pain for many people to use as it can't be read by earlier/lower versions of Word - which many people still have. So one big reason more companies are not using other applications is compatibility.
For "basic" office suite tasks (like word processing, spreadsheets, etc) any office suite will do. However, when you start doing things with graphics, specialized functions, tables and other tasks in your office suite compatibility really starts to break down. Moving to a world of online communication via HTMl, plain text and XML is where the power of collaboration and cross platform document communication shines. The more companies entering this phase of communication the less there will be a need for Microsoft Office.
If you want to save a lot of money on purchasing Microsoft Office there's two options.
1. Ensure you are part of a Microsoft licensing program. You'll save a lot of money paying full retail prices.
2. The other option is to put a strategy together to use alternative office suites - such as from IBM, ThinkFree and others. One caution: If you get emails from Word users and can't open them or can't read them properly it could damage your client or partner relations.
Beyond just downloading FREE software, IBM is encouraging developers to write programs (as is done with Microsoft Word) to add value to Lotus Symphony. Support is also very important and you can get support from your local IBM partner or pay for it from IBM directly.
tags:
ibm
,
lotus
,
microsoft
,
office
,
software
|
0 comments
Recent Posts
- Sales Compensation: It's Not Something You Can Learn In School (Let Software Help)
- Why Are You Missing Out On Cost Per Click Advertising?
- Your Body and Notebooks: The Two Are Not Naturaly Made For Each Other
- NetBooks: Understand Before Buying To Save Disappointment Later
- Karen Mills Nominated as Barack Obama's SBA Head
- Are You Doing All You Can to Secure Customer Data?
- Search Engine Strategy: How Will Customers Find You in 2009?
- Hosted Applications: Integration, Feature Rich Applications Or Both: Zoho Speaks Out
- Gadget: Turn Your Cell Phone Into A WiFi Access Point
- Hold a Videoconference Inside Your Email
Get Small Business Technology Report
Via Email Every Tuesday
What is Smallbiztechnology.com?
Smallbiztechnology.com helps small-medium sized businesses strategically use technology as a tool to grow their businesses and provides news, articles, discussion boards, resources, analysis & events for the owners of small to medium sized businesses.
Subscribe to the Smallbiztechnology RSS feed.
Join our Facebook Page.
Get cell phone Tweats (updates) via Twitter.
Updates Via Content via Avantgo!
The Foruth Annual Small Business Summit 2009 - 2008 rocked. Wait until February 3, 2009!
Post a comment