A pair of Forrester Reports offer insight into what Microsoft
Office 2010 offers for small and midsize companies, and whether
companies should provide the same productivity tools to all their
workers. For me, though, the operative question is whether everyone
in your company needs the same productivity suite?
In
A Glimpse At The Best And Worst Of Office 2010,
Forrester Analyst Sheri McLeish writes that "with increasing
competition and commoditization of productivity tools, Microsoft
must convince... buyers that Office 2010 provides compelling value
to justify the upgrade effort and costs." And just as important,
considering best practices such as workforce segmentation, is it
still necessary -- or desirable -- to buy a copy of Microsoft
Office for every knowledge knowledge worker in your company?
But late last year, in
Best Practices: Microsoft Office
Enterprise Strategy, McLeish noted that user satisfaction with
Office is generally high and that 78 percent of companies have no
plans to implement Office alternatives.
Still, she notes that Forrester is already seeing firms planning to
upgrade some workers to Office 2010, while moving other workers to
Google Apps or Zoho. And at least one medical equipment
manufacturer now "provides Google Apps to new recruits out of
college because they aren't as vested in Office, whereas older
employees would revolt against such a change."
The big factor pushing these changes is that even SMBs big enough
to get volume pricing from Microsoft are likely to find that Office
remains by far the high-priced choice. And at the same time, Office
alternatives are becoming increasingly compatible with the premium
brand.
So what's the right approach to maximizing productivity at minimum
cost? McLeish suggests that companies:
"Categorize iWorkers by what they need" and then "Move
beyond a one-size-fits-all mentality". Survey workers
about their Office use and what they really need and want, then
"segment the workforce by level of collaboration, time spent
working remotely, and attitudes toward the technologies." Finally
use these variations to "drive cost savings and efficiencies that
lean, fit-to-purpose software can offer." Just beware of "skewed or
poor data," "creating too many segments," and "ignoring other
dependencies." To avoid those problems, leverage your company's
market research experts, keep to 6 segments or less, and add
qualitative interviews to go deeper than the survey data.
"Leverage iWorker data to solve overprovisioning"
and then "Get ready for the cloud." That means getting the best
deal from Microsoft, and also making sure that each worker gets
what they really need -- and whether that can come from Microsoft
or other vendors online productivity offerings. "Eliminating MS
license costs is an attractive possibility. But the decision to
jump ship to a Web-based or Open Office alternative is reckless
without knowing that it will meet the needs of your workforce and
business processes." Creating several different scenarios can help
support your purchasing decisions. Just be sure to allow enough
prep time for purchasing negotiations and don't underestimate your
company's negotiating position. Microsoft is fighting hard to keep
its competitors at bay, and that gives even smaller companies some
leverage.
"Optimize Office tools for effeciency and
integration" and then "Know where mobile apps fit
in your workforce." Most workers don't come close to
maximizing the power of the Office apps. Both formal and informal
learning can help, and automating repetitive manual tasks can
significantly boost productivity -- if you can invest the
development resources. There's a similar opportunity in using
productivity apps on mobile devices, Forrester says, as mobile
productivity expands in 2011. But the first step is to figure out
who at your company needs to do what in a mobile environment.