Office 2007 – 3 Reality Check Reasons to Upgrade

There is a lot of intangible fluff around about the benefits of Office 2007. But there are no real compelling reasons for large corporations and governments to upgrade. Unfortunately though it was my job to come up with some. So here is my two cents on the situation, or should I say my 3 cents:

1. Microsoft officially stopped selling Office 2003 on 30 June 2007.  Support for Office 2003 will only continue until January 13, 2009. At some point you must upgrade or run the risk of having outdated and unsupported software.

2. The IT Industry moves quickly. Vendors are already building new products to take advantage of the features of Office 2007. At some point a business group within your organisation is likely to want to take advantage of new products developed by vendors that will have a dependency on Office 2007 to function correctly.

3. You have a bigger investment in Office than you realise. Analyse how many applications you have that rely on Office functionality and you will soon realise that ditching Office and moving to an alternative will cost more than moving to Office 2007.

 If you are a CIO demanding that some kind of business case be developed to justify the expense then get back in your cave with the rest of the dinosaurs! If you are a progressive forward thinking realist CIO who has cut a line or two in your life then you will win many friends with your Nike “Just do it” attitude.