- Organizations spend a lot of money renewing their Microsoft Software Assurance and Enterprise Agreements for Microsoft Office.
- Most organizations don't upgrade MS Office every three years upon release of a new version, due to a lack of must-have features.
- Justifying continued investment in MS Office, with prices remaining steady, is becoming more difficult when there are cheaper SaaS or even free alternatives.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Most organizations will not realize a reduction in costs through an enterprise-wide migration from MS Office to an alternative, because non-monetary barriers to switching are too great.
- However, money-saving opportunities exist for many organizations by implementing a limited deployment of an alternative to targeted groups, while keeping MS Office for most users to reduce the overall number of Office seats.
- When the deployment of an alternative suite is validated, OpenOffice is the alternative of choice. No other alternative suite stands up to the features and familiar feel of OpenOffice.
- Successful limited deployment requires a formal plan to communicate the migration to management and end users.
Impact and Result
- Understand the major differences between MS Office and alternative desktop productivity suites.
- Compare total cost of ownership for different products.
- Assess hybrid desktop productivity strategies,employing both locally installed alternatives and on-demand products, to reduce the cost of Microsoft Office instead of totally replacing it.
- Communicate the results and ensure a smooth implementation when deploying an alternative office suite.