|
It’s been a tough month for the folks at Microsoft. On May 28, Google stole the spotlight away from Microsoft’s Bing rollout by announcing its own development plans for Google Wave, an open source communications and collaboration tool that integrates e-mail, instant messaging, photos, video and other tools.
Then, earlier this month, Google released a plug-in for Google Apps which allows Microsoft Outlook customers to utilize Google Apps while preserving their interface for Outlook.
Now IBM has gotten further into the fray. Earlier this week, IBM announced that it’s providing support to Microsoft Office 2007 with the latest version of its no-charge IBM Lotus Symphony productivity suite. This means that Office 2007 users will be able to import Office files into Lotus Symphony 1.3 and save on their Office licensing costs should they choose to switch to Symphony while retaining the use of their Office files.
Last year, IBM said it would provide unlimited support for up to 20,000 remote Symphony users for a flat fee of $25,000. Even at that price, an organization with the same number of users could potentially save millions of dollars on a Microsoft Office enterprise agreement.
The latest version of Symphony, which includes enhancements to DataPilot in spreadsheets along with the ability to drag-and-drop plug-ins, is a terrific option for cost-conscious organizations to consider. And while even the savviest of IT leaders haven’t fully exhausted all cost-savings opportunities available to them, any potential reduction to burdensome fixed IT costs is certainly a positive alternative, particularly one that’s being handed to them on a silver platter.
As CIOs place greater trust in Software-as-a-Service and ‘the cloud’ in general, it will place even greater pressure on traditionally premise-based software providers such as Microsoft, SAP and Oracle to deliver ever more online functionality to enterprise customers at a reduced price point. It’s clear which way the wind is blowing.
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
