Office – Pagina 2 – peterdehaas.net

Microsoft Launches Office Web Apps and Office 2010 in Limited Beta

13 juli 2009

Today Microsoft officially announced The next phase of Office Web Applications. Very good to have this in to the hands (browsers) of beta testers out there.

Today at its Wordwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, Microsoft announced that the Microsoft Office suite has reached the ’technical preview’ milestone, and that starting today the company will open up the Office beta program to a larger number of users. While a new version of Office is obviously big news for a lot of users, the really interesting part of the announcement is that Microsoft is also releasing more details about the Office Web applications – which are lightweight, browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (Microsoft’s note-taking tool). Beta testers can expect invites for the Office Web applications to go out in August ….

…

Enterprise: Office Web Behind the Firewall

For enterprises, Microsoft will offer two solutions. One will be hosted as part of Microsoft’s Online Services. Another version, however, will be available for companies to host on their own servers on top of SharePoint. For enterprises, especially those that have long felt that cloud computing wasn’t for them, this self-hosted version of the browser-based Office suite is going to be a very attractive solution, especially considering that all of Microsoft’s 90 million Office annuity customers will get access to this version as a regular part of the updates that come with these volume licenses.

As Numoto told us, Microsoft believes that this will allow the company to differentiate itself from other companies that offer office solutions in the cloud. While Takeshi was careful not to mention any competitors by name, it is obvious that this is aimed at Google (and perhaps less so, startups like Zoho and ThinkFree).

Clearly, this release will be a major deal for consumers and enterprises. A free version of the browser-based Office application that easily syncs with the desktop version and allows collaboration between users on both systems is going to be a big deal.

What About the Desktop?

The desktop apps obviously also got a make-over. But compared to the shift to Office 2007, the current release features only minor cosmetic updates from what we have seen so far. The integration of the web apps looks like the most exciting addition, as well as the ribbon interface becoming standard across all the applications. Also, Microsoft is putting a lot of emphasis on real-time collaboration, and different users can now edit documents simultaneously. Alhough Numote emphasized that all edits can be reversed.

See What’s New in Microsoft Word 2010

Numoto also stressed the Office team focused on improving some of the most often used features. As an example, he told us that cut and paste is obviously one of the most popular features in Office, but that Microsoft found that after pasting something into a document, the key that was used the most often afterward was ‘delete.’ In order to improve the cut and paste process, Office will now feature a ‘cut and paste preview,’ similar to the feature that Office 2007 already offers for changing styles and fonts, for example.

Outlook aficionados will also be happy to hear that the email client will now feature an option to ‘ignore’ unwanted threads.

While the Technical Preview, which was announced today, will only be available for a limited number of users, the beta program will be open to everybody. Microsoft expects to ship the final version of Office 2010 in the first half of 2010.

So far, we haven’t had a chance to actually test-drive the desktop or web apps ourselves, but you can expect an in-depth review from us once we get access to the beta. …

Source: Microsoft Launches Office Web Apps and Office 2010 in Limited Beta

Everyone talks about Webbased Office Suites very few actually use them

29 april 2009

This Forrester report confirms my findings when it comes to webbased Office functionality. Everyone talks about it but very little people actually use it as their primary Office tools. Because everyone talks about it, there is also the general perception that webbased Office tools are widely used. Well they’re not according to this Forrester Poll.

This research shows that only 3% of the users interviewed use Google Premier Apps. I doubt if this is truely the replacement for their Office Suite or if they use Google Apps alongside it.

In many cases where people talk about webbased Office suites or have questions in that direction I find that it is not actually the editiing functions they like / desire, its the ability to share documents; often with people outside their own department / organisation. Something we used to call groupware. Hence in the same research the requirement for Collaboration functionality.

I do agree with the conclusion that the demand for webbased office tools will grow. Not because the browser is the ideal UI but because users want the ability to choose. Rich functions and offline capability when running Office locally and browser / mobile functions when they are not behind their own PC.

Functionality in the browser is the ideal companion next to my PC based apps, basically this is the way I use Outlook Web Access today. I access email through OWA whenever and wherever I am not behind my PC and when my mobile phone doesn’t help me process emails fast enough.

Microsoft Office Web Applications will be part of the next release of Microsoft Office; Microsoft Office 2010.

…. Forrester is set to release a new report about Web Office, which ReadWriteWeb got a sneak peak at. The report offers new data on office productivity innovation and cloud productivity suite adoption. The full data will be presented at Forrester’s IT Forum, to be held in Las Vegas May 19-22, 2009. The data shows that while enterprises are looking forward to innovation in web access and collaboration, they’re not so forward-looking when it comes to data integration. Also we discover that the vast majority of IT departments still support Microsoft Office, but very few support Google Premier Apps right now. …

In another slide, Forrester concluded that cloud computing adoption within enterprises is still low. 80% of respondants still support crusty old Microsoft Office, while just 3% claim to support Google Premier Apps. It really does seem like the whole enterprise industry is sitting back and waiting on Microsoft to roll out their long-awaited Web Office offerings. By these figures, it doesn’t appear like Google is making too much of a dent in the market. However we’re sure it is just a matter of time before Web Office suites are common in the workplace – even Microsoft has acknowledged that cloud computing will be an important driver for enterprise software. …

Source: Report: Web Office Support, Expectations Still Low in Enterprises

Microsoft Unveils Exchange 2010 With Public Beta

15 april 2009

The news is already all over the internet the last 24 hours but I thought it would be appropriate to wait until the official press release .. here it is the next generation Exchange.

The quote that cought my attention is : “Exchange 2010 ushers in the next generation of Microsoft unified communications software as the first server designed from inception to work both on-premises and as an online service,”

On-premise, hosted by partner or hosted by Microsoft (BPOS) or a combination of these options. No other solution has that breadth of choice in a single solution.

Next Fiscal Year (starting July 1st promises to be yet another very exciting year full of innivative new productreleases …

…First in the next wave of Office-related products, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 will help lower communications costs, improve user productivity and transform e-mail archiving…

… Microsoft Corp. today released a public beta of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, part of Microsoft’s unified communications family (http://www.microsoft.com/uc).

Exchange 2010 is part of the next wave of Microsoft Office-related products and is the first server in a new generation of Microsoft server technology built from the ground up to work on-premises and as an online service. This release of Exchange 2010 introduces a new integrated e-mail archive and features to help reduce costs and improve the user experience. A public beta of the server is available for download starting today at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010.

Exchange Server 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Microsoft Office 2010 and related products will enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and become available in the first half of 2010.

“Exchange 2010 ushers in the next generation of Microsoft unified communications software as the first server designed from inception to work both on-premises and as an online service,” said Rajesh Jha, corporate vice president of Exchange at Microsoft. “This release raises the bar with new archiving and end-user innovations that will help companies save money and employees save time.”

Exchange 2010 will help organizations reduce costs, protect communications and delight e-mail users with capabilities to do the following:

Lower costs with more flexible deployment and management options. Exchange 2010 provides organizations with the same enterprise-grade capabilities whether deployed on-premises or as a service from Microsoft or partners — or as a mix of both. Further, for customers deploying the server, the new release simplifies the way organizations provide always-on communications and disaster recovery, meaning administrators spend less time managing their e-mail system. Exchange 2010 further improves performance running on lower-cost direct-attached storage, enabling organizations to dramatically reduce storage costs by up to 85 percent without sacrificing performance or reliability.

Protect information and meet compliance requirements with the new e-mail archive. As e-mail volume grows, companies must address increasing compliance, legal and e-discovery concerns, but today, according to Osterman Research, only 28 percent of organizations currently archive their e-mail content (Osterman Research, 2008). Exchange 2010 introduces an integrated e-mail archive. The new solution makes it easier to store and query e-mail across the organization using the Exchange software that organizations already know and use.

Improve user productivity with the ultimate inbox experience. Basex Inc. recently estimated that the average number of corporate e-mail messages received per person per day is expected to reach more than 93 by 2010. In addition, businesses lose $650 billion annually in productivity due to unnecessary interruptions including those from e-mail (Basex, 2008). Exchange 2010, together with Microsoft Outlook 2010, will give people more control over their communications with features such as these:

MailTips. Warn users before they commit an e-mail faux pas such as sending mail to large distribution groups, to recipients who are out of the office or to recipients outside the organization, helping protect against information leaks and reduce unnecessary e-mail messages.

Voice Mail Preview. See text previews of voice mail directly in Outlook.

Ignore Conversation. This e-mail “mute button” allows people to remove themselves from an irrelevant e-mail string, reducing unwanted e-mail and runaway reply-all threads.

Conversation View. Combine related e-mail messages in a single conversation to reduce inbox clutter.

Call Answering Rules. Create customized “Press 1 for …” call-routing menus with Exchange voice mail.

Consistent Experience. Use Outlook on the PC, a mobile phone or a browser for the same experience with enhancements in Outlook Mobile and Outlook Web Access.

Source : Microsoft PressPass

Exchange 2010 Beta Web site

OpenXML … this is what it’s all about …

30 maart 2009

There are some things you don’t notice when comparing functions and features in Office Suites and Document Formats. Accessibility is such a thing. How do people who are for example visually handicapped use Office and how do they access document or consume information.

Accessibility is a very important “feature” in Microsoft Office. The capabilities of OpenXML enhance that even further. A great example is the fact that the DAISY consortium has now created a save to DAISY add-in for Microsoft Word.

I do wish that the ODF lobby would stop their politics and start focussing more on making Open Standards work, not for shareholders and politics but for end users, yes meaningfull stuff for end users …

In association with Microsoft, the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium has announced the second version of the Save as DAISY add-in for Microsoft Office Word, available for download over at openxmlcommunity.org. With the integration of DAISY Pipeline Lite, version 2 of the add-in produces a full DAISY multimedia publication with synchronized text and MP3 audio (instead of converting to just a DAISY XML file).

This means it is possible to transform Word documents into accessible multimedia formats for people unable to read print due to a visual, physical, perceptual, developmental, cognitive, or learning disabilities. It generates full text and audio books using the Text-to-Speech service on your PC. DAISY XML files can be read natively by some DAISY players, and the DAISY Pipeline is still available for processing those XML files. A more complete description of the DAISY standards and Word-to-DAISY conversion is available on daisy.org.

Version 1.0 of the add-in was released in May 2008 for Microsoft Office Word 2007, Word 2003, and Word XP. Since the project is open source, the Open XML to DAISY XML Translator source code is also available for download on SourceForge.net.

Source: ArsTechnica.com

BeetTV: Microsoft to Take on Google Docs, Zoho this Year with "Seamless" Web Apps

5 maart 2009

A public beta this calender year !

… When Microsoft Office releases its web applications into beta this year, it has a good shot of surpassing Google Docs right off the bat: The mainstream reliance on Microsoft Office makes Microsoft web apps a natural extension.

"I think that one of the things that makes us a little different is that we’re really trying to make the experience between going offline to online and online to offline as seamless as possible," Michael Schultz, the Director of Microsoft Office Live, told me in a Skype interview from his office in Redmond, Wash. earlier this month. The merging last week of Windows Live and Office Live reflects into a single online portal reflects that. …

I asked him about the alpha testing of Microsoft Office 14, but Microsoft is still tight-lipped about the new improvements. "When the time comes when we can talk a little bit more about that, I’m sure folks like you will be some of the first to know, and we’d be excited to come back and talk about it," he said. You can read CNET’s article on Office 14’s alpha testing here.

Source: BeetTV

Google Apps no longer free ‘if users=>50’ ?

15 januari 2009

Google made an announcement yesterday that they will limit the free Google Apps offering (Standard Edition) to 50 users. All in all some major changes to the Google Apps business model and channel this week.

… Today we’re making a change to better align the versions of Google Apps with the interests of business customers and resellers. Starting today, Standard Edition will support a maximum of 50 users for new customers. Existing Standard Edition customers with more than 50 users can continue their current service at no charge, and schools and non-profits of all sizes still have access to the free Education Edition. …

Source : Google Enterprise Blog

The Google Apps Revenue Myth: $10mm In 2009

14 januari 2009

Siliccon Alley Insider reports on the revenue objectives of Google Apps for 2009. According to a source the Google Enterprise target is $ 10 Million …

… Two years after launching Apps, the source says, Google’s Enterprise division is targeting revenue of $10 million in 2009 (200,000 paid subscribers at $50 a pop). The same source says that, privately, some Google executives hope the company might hit $40 million of revenue in 2009 (800,000 subs at $50 a pop). Both of these numbers are a joke.

Why so little revenue? The source says Google is having a devil of a time persuading free Google Apps users to sign up for the paid version.

That said, the fact that Google is apparently having trouble building Apps into a real business does NOT mean that Apps isn’t a big threat to Microsoft. …

Source : Alley Insider

Ferris: IBM’s Open Collaboration Client Solution Saves Money?

9 januari 2009

Very good article by Ferris. An objective analysis of IBM’s approach in the ‘Anything But Microsoft’ strategy. This turn out to be a very costly exercise which brings organisations no rela benefits.

IBM recently presented its Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS), in conjunction with Virtual Bridges, to Ferris. IBM proposes that OCCS presents substantial cost savings over the equivalent Microsoft approach. We’re skeptics. …

… IBM claims that the first saving ($75 per user per annum) is achieved by only purchasing Microsoft software licenses under a Microsoft Select Agreement when installing new Microsoft software (every 3-5 years), rather than entering into an Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and paying an annual license fee. This analysis is based on list prices. This is a false argument. In practice, organizations are able to negotiate Microsoft Enterprise Agreements that eliminate this $75 per user per annum differential. …

This is the case in many of these type of comparisons. Comparing the list prices against an optimised scenario.

For many years, competitors (Corel Office, Lotus SmartSuite) have offered productivity suites at significantly lower price points than Microsoft Office. For some time, Star Office-derived offerings (Open Office from Sun, and more recently, Symphony from IBM/Lotus) have been available at zero cost. We accept that there are users who do not need the power (and attendant complexity) of Microsoft Office. However, these alternative offerings have had little impact on Microsoft’s Office market share.

IBM’s approach also involves a hidden cost. Lotus Symphony is written in Java and runs atop Lotus Expediter and open-source Eclipse, also written in Java. Under Windows and Linux, Java JAR files are treated as data, which considerably increases the memory footprint of these applications. In fact, Lotus recommends at least 1GB of memory to run Symphony effectively. Business users who wish to migrate desktop PCs from Microsoft Office to Lotus Symphony may find that they will need to upgrade (replace?) these PCs at significant cost. In fairness to IBM, users who wish to upgrade to Windows Vista will also require a significant PC upgrade.

Exactly .. “free” in purchasing terms is not free in practice. Migration cost the lack of or limited ISV eco system (so no or little 3rd party solutions), a limited partner eco system (fewer partners providing support often means support is more expensive and scarce).

… Ferris is very dubious about any cost savings that accrue from replacing Microsoft Exchange + SharePoint + OCS with Lotus Domino + Quickr + Sametime, or vice versa. In both cases, Ferris data indicates that migration costs swamp any putative savings. In addition, as with IBM productivity applications (see above), upgrading to Notes 8.x, which is Java/Expediter/Eclipse-based, introduces a 1GB PC desktop RAM requirement. This is a requirement that is not satisfied by the vast majority of currently deployed business desktop PCs (see above). In addition, Ferris believes that any organizations that are willing to allow Microsoft to host their collaboration data will be able to realize considerable cost savings by switching to Microsoft’s Online offering (see MS Exchange Online Pricing) of which Exchange Online + SharePoint Online + Office Communication Online + Live Meeting can be purchased for $15 per user per month. …

Microsoft is actually expanding the choice for clients. Not only how they procure software or services but also how they deploy the solution. Microsoft Online Services is the better solution, simply because it represents an evolutionary model which over IBM’s revolution …

… We cannot help but feel that IBM is today, as it has been for many years, interested in the idea of reducing Microsoft’s desktop revenue. It has tried with mainframe-based offerings, with Java-based Network Computers, and now with its Linux-based Open Collaboration Client Solution. IBM has not succeeded in the past, nor do we expect it to be any more successful with this offering. In our opinion, the greatest threat to Microsoft’s desktop hegemony comes from the cloud (e.g., Google Apps, etc.). We believe that Microsoft’s rapidly emerging Live and Online offerings mean that Microsoft is already well positioned to benefit from any move to the cloud, just as it did with an earlier move to the browser and Web server.

… Nick Shelness

Source: IBM’s Open Collaboration Client Solution Saves Money?

Microsoft Office 2008 gets Mac-Windows collaboration capabilities

8 januari 2009

Very good move to bridge the MAC OS and Windows platforms …

January 6, 2009 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. today said it would launch new Macintosh software later this year that will let Office 2008 for Mac users collaborate with people running the Windows version of the application suite.

The company made the announcement at the Macworld Conference & Expo, where Apple Inc. delivered the keynote for the last time, without CEO Steve Jobs, a longtime fixture at the event.

Document Collaboration Companion will be released to a small number of beta testers next month, said a Microsoft spokeswoman in an e-mail today. However, Microsoft would not commit to a definitive final release timetable, saying only that it would deliver the software "later this year."

The spokeswoman said that the program will make it easier for users to download and upload documents to enterprise servers running SharePoint, Microsoft’s browser-based collaboration platform, or to Office Live Workspace, the free online service that offers similar functionality. Document Collaboration Companion also will provide Mac-based tools to let Office users check shared documents in and out.

Microsoft touted the upcoming software and a planned makeover of Entourage — the e-mail client for Office 2008 for Mac — as its first moves toward providing some of the same kind of services to its Mac customers that those running Windows already enjoy.

Enterprise: Office Web Behind the Firewall

What About the Desktop?

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