openoffice
Microsoft U-Turn on OOXML
In light of a recent post by Rob Weir on the woeful inadequacies of Microsoft Excel 2007's financial functions I thought this might make interesting reading...
This move has been treated with trepidation by some ODF advocates and we do need to wait until early 2009 to see what Microsoft will actually do, but I firmly believe it's a step in the right direction for Microsoft. Hopefully this will mean that they have recognised the multitude of mistakes they made with OOXML and that ODF is a much more suitable format, and with their joining the standards boards and a continued promise of interoperability we can only hope this is the first step of many!
Watch this space I guess!
Danish OpenOffice adoption case study reports 91% lower TCO
I know I've promoted the use of OpenOffice.org the Open Source competitor to Microsoft's Office 2007, citing anecdotal experience of lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and equal functionality for a long time, but now it's official!
The Copenhagen Business School has just released a study into using OpenOffice.org vs Microsoft Office 2007 and it would appear they agree with me!
The article itself is written in Danish but the executive summary at the start is in English and explains three TCO analyses for implementing OpenOffice.org in a local hospital, a national hospital and the entire public service.
I think the figures do the talking themselves:
The total TCO for implementing OpenOffice.org at Klaksvík hospital ... OpenOffice.org results in a cost reduction of 24%
The total TCO for implementing OpenOffice.org at Landssjúkrahúsið ... OpenOffice.org results in a cost reduction of 67%
The total TCO for implementing OpenOffice.org LandsNet (the entire public sector) ... OpenOffice.org results in a cost reduction of 91%
Two other quotes hold particular significance to me:
The major IT vendors on the Faroes, SENTA and Formula.fo, are both suppliers of Microsoft products to the public sector. Both vendors are Microsoft Gold Partners and Microsoft plays a very central role in their strategy. The vendors’ competences are primarily on Microsoft, including their office suite Office. They have no intentions to include OpenOffice.org in their assortment unless the public sector demands this.
Implementing OpenOffice.org in the entire Faroese public sector is not plausible in the short run, due to a recent Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft which doesn’t expire until 2010.
Sadly showing how closed source software still dominates the Danish public sector by way of long term "agreements" and "partnerships", even with proven cost benefits and functional equality Open Source software still has to fight against an uneven playing field.
Open Source software has made big gains in developing markets such as South America and Eastern Europe with this report proving massive cost benefits I can only hope we start to see some more open minded thinking from the people with power in the wider European and world IT industry.
Real credit for this discovery must go to Erwin Tenhumberg for his post entitled "OpenOffice.org Study by the Copenhagen Business School" where I found this report.
