Office 2000 is out – but is it in?

1999-06-09

Microsoft has launched Office 2000, 15 million copies are sold already and it’s still only 1999. The product reviews are excellent, thus far – the individual applications that make up the O2K family are being judged, once again, as the best in their field. Microsoft appear to have it all sewn up. Good news for Microsoft? Well, that depends on your perspective.

First off – Office 2000 continues a line of partially integrated productivity applications based on Microsoft Office 4.2. When Office 4.2 came out in 1993, magazines ran comparisons with WordPerfect Office and Lotus Smartsuite, usually drawing the conclusion that any of the above would do the job, but Microsoft had the edge. Organisations bought office suites by the truckload, with the brand usually dependent on the incumbent word processor. New releases of suites from the different suppliers brought with them new features, enhancements and bug fixes, each time making the new versions a more attractive purchase than the old - when the suite wars reached a crescendo, organisations “rationalised” to Microsoft and it was all over bar the shouting. The point is this. In 1994 we had a very capable set of office applications which gave us the facilities to do 95% of the job (bar, admittedly, the functionality now available in Outlook). It is now five years later and, whatever the functionality now available, it is questionable whether we need it at all. A word processor is, was and always has been a word processor.

It is clear that Microsoft recognise that if they want to ship O2K, they need a new spin. As stated on Silicon.com, “the software is intended to promote a ‘web work style’ for ‘knowledge workers’ who need to share information.” Reading between the lines, and looking at Microsoft’s other announcements yesterday, the plan is to sell Office 2000 as an element of facilities enabling collaborative working, for example document sharing. Fair enough – aside from the (still perceived as niche) document management market, this is an area which remains largely untapped.

Microsoft are guaranteed a packet of O2K sales, at least in the short term. But in the longer term the jury is still out. As a purchaser, if you see Office 2000 as an application set, the question is, do you need to upgrade from your existing, functionally rich suite? And if the suite is to be used as part of a collaborative working environment, is your organisation ready to exploit the potential of your “knowledge workers”? Aye, there’s the rub. Microsoft are stepping into new territory with Office 2000, and it is anyone’s guess what the future holds for the suite.

(First published 9 June 1999)