On 06/13/2007 09:06 PM, Mike Reeves wrote: > I agree that it would be interesting.. That's one of the reasons I > thought I would send out this email to even see if it was a good > possiblity we should try or if it will just flat out fail.
I know that there are large corporations, government offices, libraries, etc., that use only OpenOffice. Google (in this case) is your friend. Also see: http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=318 > > Unless someone else pops in that has done this before and says > whether or not it works on a medium-large business, I may start by > gaining some volunteers that would be willing to do some testing for > me. Unfortunately you were right in saying the latitude I have over > the situation; however I think i could talk to my boss and see how he > feels about the idea of this; but I can convince him easier if there > was proof out there. > > I do appreciate the help on this matter. Thank you all, --Mike > Reeves I'd recommend that you have a look at Solveig Haugland's openofficeblog. http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/ http://openoffice.blogs.com/about.html She's written several books on StarOffice and OpenOffice and provides training for just what you are looking to do. Additional resources are: http://marketing.openoffice.org/ http://www.openoffice.org/editorial/ Making a transition to OOo vs MS Office is very much like making the transition from MS Office 97 to MS Office 2007; you'll always have training issues, format and file issues, and logistical issues. However, the financial transition to OOo will be considerably less at the start, and considerably less in the long run. I've been in the networking/computer industry for over 20 years and it has *always* amazed me how companies/corporations leap to a new 'updated' version of office software. I did a time & motion study many years back on the productivity and financial effects of simply updating an older version of MS Office (MSO) to a newer, 'improved' version of MSO for a customer. The CEO was rather shocked at the findings, but in the end he signed the P.O.'s anyway... afterall, like the old IBM adage "you don't get fired for buying IBM", the MS equivalent rings true. Now that MS has made the move to Vista and MS 2007, this is an ideal time to seriously make the transition away and implement OOo. Just as you probably wouldn't transition all of your existing MSO 2003 (or whatever) over to MSO 2007, don't try to transition everyone over to OOo. Select a group of intelligent MSO users and have them start using OOo. Ensure that they still have their existing MSO install so that they can fall back on if needed, but have them sign up to only do so in a crisis. Some points for your PHB's: 1. OpenOffice is free and opensource software. That means, at the very minimum, two things: 1) you don't have to pay for it to test, install, implement, and continue to use on a regular basis, 2) because it is opensource you can look at the code, modify it to suit your requirements, contribute any changes you've made to it. 2. Testing OOo in your company will cost no more, and indeed considerably less than testing a new trial version of MSO 2007. The resources to do so will be pretty much the same, but in the end you can continue to use OOo if you wish without having to fill out those purchasing forms and obtaining budget to get new licenses. 3. If a company software audit were to be performed today, how many instances of illegal copies of MSO are likely to be found, both on the company computers and the employees laptops & home computers? You do realize that as a responsible corporate citizen, any company work performed on an illegal copy of MSO on the employee's laptop or home computer is just as illegal as that performed on a company computer with illegal sofware don't you? So, will the company also audit the employee's laptops and home computers to ensure that they are legal? Not likely. So just bite the bullet and issue a newly licenced copy of MSO to *every* employee in the company so that they can take home and install to ensure that any work they do from their laptop or home computer is legal. Crazy huh? Well not so crazy when MS starts logging all of the multiple registration & update codes using the same registration number, then finding that they all belong to a single company purchased copy. 4. As others have mentioned, there will be some format quirks, differences, difficulties, etc., in the transition. However you will find the same were you to upgrade to Vista, upgrade from MSO 2007, or any other software. In your trial why not do this: have a small group upgrade to Vista and MSO 2007, have the other group upgrade to OOo (even using an upgrade - is that really an upgrade? - to Vista as well) on their existing Windose machines. I'd recommend upgrading to linux, but one step at a time :-0 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
