Microsoft Office 2007 Upgrading Could Be an Expensive, Time-Consuming, Unnecessary Process With a Big Learning Curve. Now's the Time to Consider OpenOffice.org Instead.
Note: I have extensively changed and republished this blog, originally published in January, because of new info from Microsoft.
It All Comes Back to Economics 101
How much is too much?
What do you put up with, or pay, or sacrifice, for a product?
We use things based on the ratio of cost to benefit: spouses, software, sandwiches. Even for a product you love, if the cost were different, you might not use it anymore.
If your favorite moisturize were $2 million a jar, if that great Reuben is now available only in Delaware, or your wonderful, really hot girlfriend is now mean to you all the time, you stop using them.
There are people out there who love Microsoft Office. Yes, it's expensive, but it sure does a lot. It's very slick-looking and cool. And you already are comfortable with it and know how to use it, and so does everyone in your organization. For a lot of people that cost/benefit ratio is OK.
But you wouldn't use it if it cost a million dollars.
You wouldn't use it if you had to give up your first-born child
You wouldn't use it if you got a terrible painful rash from using it.
You wouldn't use it if you could get the same benefits for free.... would you?
So how much cost do you put up with for the benefit of Microsoft Office?
Where is the line that makes Microsoft Office no longer a good decision for you?
What if this:
changed to this?
Cost. Benefit. The first should be lower than the second. And the overall cost and pain of using Microsoft Office is about to get a lot bigger.
Think About the Upgrade to Microsoft 2007. Really Think About It.
If you're using MS Office, you've probably upgraded from previous versions. It might not have been too big a deal, though I've been annoyed in the past at some changes between versions. I really liked Word in 1995 on the Mac; not so much since then.
Anyway. I want to ask everyone out there currently thinking of upgrading to Microsoft 2007 to really think about everything that's going to be involved, and why you are upgrading.
Why think about it now with this version? Because Office 2007 is a radical redesign and everyone in your organization is going to have to relearn how they do things.
Here's the deal:
- Upgrading to Microsoft Office will involve re-learning and training, plus the expense of upgrading, and the work involved in installing the new software.
- Upgrading to OpenOffice.org will involve re-learning and training, no expense of upgrading, and the work involved in installing the new software.
So if OpenOffice.org will meet your office suite needs....why bother to pay for Microsoft Office?
If after careful evaluation of 2007, the alternatives
(OpenOffice.org among others), and what is involved in upgrading, you
still think MS Office 2007 is the best solution, go ahead and upgrade.
But it might not be, and it's important to think about your choices.
That's the basic statement.
Here's the detail.
Learning Microsoft Office 2007 Is Not Going to Be a Walk in the Park
Here's Paul Thurott:
"For the first time ever, Microsoft has dramatically changed the Office interface, replacing the standard menu-and-toolbar interface we've known since the earliest Windows applications with a new UI paradigm based on context-sensitive ribbons and tabs."
Here are quotes from Paul's article on the new office software, from Jacobe Jaffe, Group Product Manager on the Office team. "As a personal anecdote, I have a variety of PCs, and on one of those machines for a variety of reasons, I still have Office 2003 installed. I use Office 12 essentially full time, and for me to go back into 2003 is not so good. It's pretty painful, actually."
And Paul's follow-up comment. "...But because this requires a different skill set to accomplish, I had to relearn how to do this. Long story short, most things are easier, but some power user features will require some more work....I'm nitpicking here, of course. The truth is, the Office 12 interface is so much dramatically better than previous versions, it's hard to find fault with it. On the other hand, I am a power user who uses Office all day long, and I slightly resent having to relearn certain skills. I'll get over it."
Think about all those users out there. Switching, if they all do, is not going to be easy. Take a look at just one part of it. Think about how the people who call you, the IT support folks, are going to react. Think about Laura in accounting or Bob down in contracts.
What Microsoft Office 2007 Looks Like
Here's the current Microsoft Word toolbar, and the toolbar for OpenOffice.org Writer. Right now, they're really similar. Click each to see a bigger image. See how long it takes to tell which is which.
MS Office 12 looks entirely different, and changes constantly as you move in the document. Click this image to see a larger version.
You can't just install this on all 500 computers at your organization and tell people there's a new version. This is going to be a big learning curve.
Switching to Office 2007 Might Be the Biggest Unnecessary, Expensive, Pain in the Butt You've Experienced in a Long Time
So as I mentioned before, upgrading to MS Office 2007, and switching to OpenOffice.org, involve roughly the same amount of effort. And nowhere near the same amount of money.
Switching from your current Microsoft software to Office 2007 will require:
- A lot of money for the software
- Training and documentation
- Time
- General hassle
Switching from your current Microsoft software to OpenOffice.org will require:
A lot of money for the software- Training and documentation
- Time
- General hassle
OpenOffice.org is absolutely free. So far, $0. You'll need to train users on OpenOffice.org, but that's not going to be a huge cost. I'm not sure what others charge but my training for OpenOffice.org is $70 to $110 per student per day. There's also some time, variable by organization, spent converting documents.
When you switch to MS Office 12, though, you'll need to pay for the software. A lot. You'll need to train your users. And convert documents and deal with the formatting issues that result. Some people are still on MS Office 95, or 98--switching documents to MS Office 12 is not going to be trouble-free. So add that cost to your conversion to MS Office 12, too.
If you can pay for the upgrades to MS Office 12 for everyone who might ever possibly use the software, and train everyone in your organization, for $70 to $110 per user, well, then you might want to do that. If you can't, though, and I'm pretty sure most people can't, now is the time to start considering the easier and far less expensive approach: switching to OpenOffice.org.
If you are considering it, see this post on the process of migrating a group of users who might be resisting the process, and this post on top ten reasons to switch to OpenOffice.org (besides the one covered in this post).
What Other People Say About Just Switching to OpenOffice.org Instead of Upgrading to Office 2007
Mark Shuttleworth (founder of the Ubuntu project, second space tourist), makes this point, posted by Justin here.
This might not be a direct quote but it's Justin's restatement of Mark's point.
"Office 12 has had substantial UI changes, since Microsoft is trying to distance themselves from the Open Office project. End result, users will require re-training. So which is easier? Re-train users in new Office 12? Or simply, start using Open Office which quite frankly looks just like MS Office today."
Here's another blog along the same lines, Ted's Radio Blog, with a similar conclusion at the end.
"Seven different versions. Dozens of applications, with various features disabled. Nightmarish new licenses. New servers. What a mess! All this to print documents, calculate spreadsheets and do other routine office work? I think Microsoft is overreaching here. They may sell to their captive audience, but new computer users whose machines come with Corel Office or OpenOffice are going to be hard-pressed to find a reason to switch. If you haven't tried OpenOffice.org, there's no better time than the present!"
Do You Even Need Microsoft Office 2007's Features?
OK, so it's cool. So is a new Jaguar, a condo in Aspen, and your own private plane. I don't choose to spend my money on those things, because I don't really need them. (And they're too expensive.)
- Did you need ribbon toolbars and a new UI paradigm?
How many of the new features does your organization actually need? Have the support staff been begging you for this one?
"We're also enabling a new mobile scenario with OneNote Mobile," Jaffe told me. "So literally you'll be able to have a OneNote notebook available to you on a mobile device, like a Windows Powered Smartphone. You can take notes on your Smartphone, or read your [PC-based notes on the Smartphone. The pages in that Smartphone notebook align to the information you have in your PC version of OneNote. They sync up through ActiveSync."
And think about these questions:
- How many complaints will you get about how everything's different?
- How much will you spend on training and documentation to get people up and running on Office 2007?
Think About What You Could Spend Money On Instead of the Microsoft Office 2007 Licenses
So let's say you are considering ditching MS Office and going with OpenOffice.org. Figure out how much money you'll save, Imagine it in a big pile of cash in the middle of the room.
Any ideas what you could spend that money on? Something important?
I trained an organization in Wyoming on OpenOffice.org. They decided they would rather spend the money on their hospital and ambulance service than on Microsoft Office.
(They use Ubuntu, which not only includes OpenOffice.org but sends out CDs free of charge. No shipping charges. Period. And not just one; a lot. I ordered a bunch for myself the other day.)
If you don't need Microsoft Office, and you can get what you need for free from OpenOffice.org, then Microsoft Office 2007 is just a $1,000 toilet from the Pentagon or Kozlowski's $6,000 gold shower curtain.
Tags
Great article !!!
Yes OOo is the good way.
As a joke, if users still need billions of cells in their spreadsheet, Calc can event beat the future Excell 12
http://blogs.nuxeo.com/sections/blogs/laurent_godard/2006_02_08_the-spreadsheet-next
Posted by: Laurent Godard | February 23, 2006 at 01:29 PM