On Tuesday 07 March 2006 15:39, Chad Smith wrote: > On 3/7/06, Howard Coles Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Fact 1: you WILL spend the same amount in "lost productivity" because of > > "training" if you are upgrading to a new version of MS Office, especially > > if > > they have changed enough around to confuse folks. While the amount may > > be some bit smaller, you still have an amount, and it needs to be > > factored in. > > I think what you'll find is that training someone to use OOo doesn't cost > > all > > that much more than training them to use MSO 12. > > There will be some training either way (either organized training, or trial > and error training) of course - but the MS argument is that it is less when > going from MSO n to MSO n+1 than going from MSO n to OOo x. > > > Fact 2: This message demonstrates (by way of example, not that the post is > > > suffering from this) the complete lack of long term thinking that screws > > up > > major businesses today. > > <snip> > > Most people (myself included) are guilty of sacrificing the longterm on the > alters of the immediate. In fact, I have a saying that guides my life - > money now is always worth more than money later. That's why I pay Uncle > Sam every year instead of having him pay me. I want my money as I earn it > - not held up for me until next year. The point is, many firms operate > under the same kind of thought process - yes, I could spend $5 today to > possibly save me $100 next year, but I need the $5 now more than the 100 > later. > > Another problem with your thinking is that you assume there will be an > upgrade for OpenOffice.org. Seriously, who is to say there will be? It's > all done by volunteers (in theory, I know most coding is done by Sun > employees). What if nobody decides to keep working on it? Can you > guarentee me that there will be an OpenOffice.org 3.0? How about 5.0? I > have Billions of reasons to believe that there will be a Microsoft Office > 13 and even a 15. > > Businesses understand businesses. And even with all the backstabbing that > goes on, businesses trust businesses. Because businesses understand what > drives other businesses - and that is Money. OOo isn't driven by money, so > how can a business trust it when it doesn't understand its motivation? > > So there is a "big picture" long-term thinking at work here - just not the > kind you are thinking of. > > Another problem is a lack of support. What 800 number do you call at 2 am > on Saturday night to get tech support for your 500 seats of OpenOffice.org? > I know the one to call if it's a problem with MSO. Granted it will cost me > $35 a hour (or more) to call them - but it's there. > > It's not as simple as it looks.
Your focus is too narrowed. There's StarOffice, which you can pay 75 bucks a seat for and get support, by a business. Truth is, support is available. Not only that, but you assume OOo is what you'll always have to use, not so. There are probably millions of reasons I can think of that would convince me that there will be another 5 or 6 versions of StarOffice. I also fail to mention the many other vendors who support OpenDocument format, and the many vendors who, for a smaller fee than MS, will support your OOo conversion and troubleshooting needs. (as a matter of fact I know of two such companies in my city, and have worked with one). Point is there are solutions that could put money in your pocket today if the execs would just look for them. Like I mentioned in my post, you could buy a number of licenses from Sun for StarOffice for those occassions when advanced features, and support are needed. However, the fact is that in most companies the greater majority of users never see MSOffice because its too expensive to put on their desktop anyway. Out of some 6000 users on our network I'd venture than only about 1000 have MSOffice installed, the rest, just the free viewer. Now, what would be wrong with converting those 1000 to Sun's StarOffice for only $75 a seat (you may even be able to work a better deal with them who knows), and giving the rest OOo? OR, giving the rest Adobe Acrobat reader and having all docs saved as PDF files. There's money in the pocket now (savings per seat from MS noting that training is a wash because either way you ARE going to do that), and money for the future. Figure that! And if you are a part of a company that only looks at today, it must really stink, and probably will not be around long anyway. Why? Because businesses are like people, those who think of today only die tomorrow. People think long term when they buy two weeks of groceries knowing they don't get paid for another two weeks. People think long term every time they buy stock, or put money in a savings plan, and we call them 'wise'. Those who do not put money back, either in a savings plan, retirement fund, etc, or in investments, we call "foolish". If you really do live by that "money now is worth more than money later" mantra you are a sad person indeed, and you really need to talk to a financial adviser. Because the fact is money later is nearly always worth more than money now. I can do more with the 3500 I saved up through the year, than I can with the 5 dollars I greedily hang on to today. -- See Ya' Howard Coles Jr. John 3:16! Christian Books On-Line http://risenbooks.com http://home.comcast.net/~dhcolesj --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
