Hi Friends
I have drafted a mail to be used for me in sending for lobbying OO
implementation . I had made first copy of the mail . I want to keep this
“mail contents “ with accordance with GPL. So that it gets better . I have
cut and pasted the mail contents below , Please go through it .
Also please advice me on where to post so that others can modify it and use it
Thanks
Joseph John
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Dear Friend
It has been years since we both has used open office for our official and
personal needs, you will agree with me that so far we both are happy with it .
Now when I heard from you that there is a need for buying the MS office
license for our office needs ,I could say that it is not a wise decision .
What are the valid reason for us to go for MS office ?
People who lobby for MS says that users are comfortable with MS office, so we
need to buy and continue using MS office , When we observe this people we
can see that most of them have not even tried using OpenOffice . They think OO
is too difficult to work or too difficult to learn , It is only problem in
adjusting with the new environment . It seems a user will find less difficult
in migrating to OO than from 2003 to 2007
Another reason they point out is that all doc types are not opened it OO,
this opinion is also from ignorance ,OO can open all MS file format
irrespective of 2003 or 2007 . While we could see MS Office has problems in
opening files of other MS versions
It is true some documents which has heavy macros find initial difficult in OO
, but this kind of documents are very less in an organization . Once someone
start using OO he could save the documents generated to DOC format . In some
worst case a re-editing of old docs could be done .
We had covered the points of the MS-Office fans . Let us see why we should
not use MS-office
We should not be using it for the following reason
Finance :- Licensing cost single MS-Office will come up to US$300, just
multiply with the no of users in our company , even though if we take only half
or quarter of the license then also when you sum up the amount it is too high ,
How is it justified in spending such a big amount, isn't a complete waste of
money. Can't even imagine that we are forcing our self to spend a big amount
of money for nothing We could keep on saving if we can use OO. All paranoid
feelings of the users could be removed by giving them some kind of in- house
introduction classes .
Vendor locking :- If we want to use MS-Office we need to use MS-OS , we are
getting trapped in a circle and as time goes we will be spending more and more
on the license fees and not able to use any other good product because of
this vendor locking , if we have better and reliable alternative why we need
to spend our money and get trapped ? .
Future IT decisions get affected:- Using non-standard and proprietary
technology is some thing which will influence all future IT decision. We could
see around that responsible organization and Govt bodies are moving towards
open standards , they have already realized the future benefit in using open
standard product such as Open Office
I have to agree with you that users may feel very different when they are asked
to switch to a different application. As mentioned we could boost up the
users confidence by
Create a good FAQ on how to use OO and post link to the portal
Create video tutorials on the OO and post link to the portal
Conducting weekly 1-2 hour training for people who need backing
Find and train some mentors in each department , if at all some users get
stuck they can avail of mentors help
When I see the obstacles and paranoid feelings in implementing OO , It
comes to the mind how people in early 80 reacted when they were asked to use
computer . All most all the people who was working during those time were
paranoid in introduction of computers for work, They were afraid of so many
things , but very fast they got adapted to usage of PC . Similarly with
proper implementation we could move towards OO and in turn contribute more
towards saving all those license fees
Thanking you
Joseph John
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