Office 2010: Should You Upgrade?

In my last column, I wrote about Microsoft's (News - Alert) hardware and software requirements for its new Office 2010 suite. The company published those to help customers determine whether or not they can run the new Office edition. But after you figure out if you can run Office 2010, the next question is: should you? What are the potential pros and cons of updating your Office suite to Microsoft's latest?

 

A report published earlier this month by research firm Forrester (News - Alert) looked at the good and the bad of moving to Office 2010 based on feedback from IT pros. The report “A Glimpse at the Best and Worst of Office 2010” found that the new Office suite does offer some solid new features but throws in a few potential pitfalls.

 

One of the benefits Forrester called “boundary-breaking” is the capability of Office 2010 to integrate with the Web. Along with the usual desktop suite, Microsoft will offer Office Web Apps, Web-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Office users will be able to edit, share, and store documents online. Businesses can also opt to keep Office Web Apps internal and available only to employees, an option that Microsoft set up to address security concerns over having documents out on the Internet.

 

Through Office 2010, Microsoft is also improving the interaction and collaboration between Office and SharePoint, letting you grab your documents from any PC, browser, or mobile device that can access your SharePoint environment.

 

Finally, Microsoft has enhanced the look and feel of Office. You can now customize the ribbon that was introduced in Office 2007. A new backstage panel is available, making it easier to work with documents and configure Office. Outlook 2010 sports some tweaks as well. It will offer you the ability to view messages in threads or conversations. And in a nod to social networking, Microsoft is unveiling a feature called the Outlook Social Connector, which can tie in external sites like LinkedIn to your Outlook 2010 email and calendar.

 

Okay, those are a few of the benefits. What about the pitfalls?

 

As I mentioned in my previous column, Office 2010 will be the first version of Office available in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. The 64-bit edition will let users take advantage of more memory, helpful for things like huge Excel spreadsheets. But as Forrester points out, there are clear hardware and software compatibility problems in the 64-bit world. So it's an area that opens up a whole mess of support issues.

Microsoft has updated its Visual Basic Applications, or “VBA,” for Office 2010, the language used for macros. Outlook may be the most affected as it's the one application that has undergone the most changes since its 2007 and 2003 editions. As always, you'll want to make sure that macro code doesn't get broken as a result of an upgrade.

 

Forrester sees a feature like the Outlook Social Connector as a plus. But since it is a brand new feature, it may initially be clunky and not very user-friendly.

 

Microsoft itself faces several challenges in convincing customers to move to Office 2010, according to Forrester. Office has always been an expensive product, not just to purchase but to deploy. At my former company, I was part of the team in charge of deploying a previous version of Office to our corporate sites around the world. The project required a lot of time, effort, and coordination, not just from our team but from others throughout the company. Back then we didn't have much choice but to continually upgrade Office.

 

Today, though, less expensive options exist. To save money, many businesses have switched from MS Office and Outlook to Google Apps and Google Docs, and many more are certainly considering it. Smaller businesses are looking at Web-based collaborative tools like Zoho (News - Alert) and Thinkfree. To retain its customers, Microsoft must somehow show that its Office suite is still worth the cost.

 

Users also need to be able to easily share documents, not just internally but externally, and not just across computers but across other devices. To remain relevant, Microsoft has to make it easier for people to use office when, where, and how they want it.

 

Microsoft also needs to ease people into the future when it changes the look and feel of Office. Forrester points out that many Office users were upset by the ribbon and other startling new features in Office 2007. As an IT guy, even I was thrown by the new UI in Office 2007 but came to appreciate the simplicity of the ribbon and other enhancements. However, I heard from more than a few clients asking me if there was a way to make Office 2007 look like Office 2003. Though Microsoft must continually enhance and improve Office, any changes should be user friendly.

 

Forrester offers a few tips to IT groups considering a move to Office 2010.

 

If your company has any type of Microsoft agreement that includes Software Assurance, which lets you upgrade for free, you may want to plan an update sooner than later. Forrester believes that power users would especially benefit from some of the new features in Excel and the enhanced collaboration with SharePoint.

 

Deal with potential problems like broken links, macros that may no longer work, and file incompatibilities before you upgrade rather than after.

 

Outlook's integration with social networking sites sounds like a cool idea. But it opens up concerns about security and could be a distraction for employees who want to update their Facebook (News - Alert) or LinkedIn accounts. Forrester points out that you can turn off or limit access from the new Outlook Social Connector according to your company policies.

 

Like each new office suite, Office 2010 will offer some new features that can genuinely enhance productivity. But along with those come potential upgrade problems as well as the time and cost of yet another Office deployment. As always, it's important to weigh and discuss the pros and cons within your own department to help you decide if and when you want to move to the latest Office suite.