Microsoft announced the availability of four business products: Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, and Microsoft Project 2010. This is a milestone for the software giant in that all at one time a collection of their suite of office products has entered the software world.
This is a landmark in other ways. Microsoft’s SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 beta programs were the largest ever. They had three times more participants compared to the Office 2007 beta program. As a result, over 8.6 million consumers are already using Office 2010 and the related series of products. Furthermore, over 1,000 Microsoft partners are building working solutions for the 2010 set of products.
Right now Office 2010 is available in 14 languages. However, in the course of the next several months, the plan is to make Office 2010 and related products available in 94 languages. That would certainly confirm its world wid presence.
Not waiting for consumers to ask, “What about Sharepoint?”, Microsoft has an answer, via a demonstration. Their global launch website located at http://www.the2010event.com, which has the 2010 suite, also has Microsoft SharePoint 2010 as its underlying software source. Currently it is reaching a diverse community of more than 60 countries and 26 languages worldwide.
All of this is good news for Microsoft, including the potential return on investment provided by the study by the independent company, Forrester Consulting, called “The Total Economic Impact of Implementing Microsoft’s Integrated Office Productivity Platform,”
Their May 2010, study evaluated the 2010 releases of Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Their model uses four fundamental elements in making their evaluation. These are costs, flexibility and risk, and benefits to the entire organization.
Using customer interviews, Forrester set up a Total Economic Impact (TEI) framework for an organization. They found the Return on Investment (ROI) to be 301 percent. A payback on investment would be a short period of between 7 and 8 months after deployment.
The study also found that the organization would see savings of more than $13 million over a three-year period on average, which is the equivalent of savings of more than two work weeks per year.
Microsoft 2010 - Launch
Source: Microsoft
