Microsoft
Partners Say Office 2010 Ready To Roll,
With Office 2010 now code-complete, Microsoft channel partners are getting ready to drum up
demand for the latest version of the software giant's productivity suite.
Ken Winell, CEO, ExpertCollab, a SharePoint-focused
solution provider in US, has been using the beta version of Office 2010 for
months. "I have found it stable and feature-complete," he said.
"Microsoft has always been careful to ensure the flagship product is not
buggy out of the box, and the extended beta period hopefully made sure.
Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, a Microsoft partner, agrees with the stability assessment. "It definitely bodes well
for its launch," Sobel said. "I haven't had any issues with it, but
Office has always been stable. I expect customers to have the same sort of
reaction."
One of the most closely watched aspects of Office 2010
is Office Web Apps, free cloud-based versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and
OneNote. Office Web Apps will go up against Google Apps in the market for free
Web-based productivity apps, and they're viewed as Microsoft's response to
Google Apps' growing profile in the marketplace.
But Google Apps has some key limitations, such as its
inability to format and work on documents offline. That's an essential feature
for many users, according to Winell.
However, Google has started to make some inroads in
sharing documents, Winell said. "The new version offers a near real-time
collaboration ability that is pretty good," he said. "It is my
understanding that the attraction of Google Docs is the cost (none) or for
enterprises is substantially lower than a full Microsoft license.
Microsoft partners believe that Office Web Apps will
give Microsoft a powerful tool for combating Google Apps, particularly in
companies that have standardized on Microsoft technology.
"We just haven't seen any customers express any
interest in Google Apps at all," said Marc Harrison, President, Silicon
East, a Microsoft solution provider in US. "That being said, if they do at
some point in the future, we'll just point to Microsoft's Office Web Apps,
offhandedly mention they're compatible with the desktop apps pretty much the
entire world is using, and let them make their own decision."
Sobel echoed this sentiment: "There's a faceoff
between Microsoft and Google because both want to manage the technological
environment as well as customer relations," he said. "Google
oversimplifies and has always had a one-size-fits-all philosophy, while
Microsoft now offers more choices and is embracing multiple ways of doing
things."
Microsoft has a clear advantage over Google when it
comes to cloud apps because of customers' preference for Office software,
particularly in the business marketplace, says Matt Makowicz, Principal,
Ambition Consulting, a US-based solution provider.
"Microsoft has made it a mission to win in the
cloud computing space," Makowicz said. "The availability of Office
2010 will help keep Microsoft at the forefront of the productivity suite
conversations and ahead of Google, with help from partners who continue to
recommend Office over anything else."
By
Yara Souza, ChannelWeb
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