Category: computers

Is Microsoft Office 2010 suitable for your business?

Does Microsoft Office 2010 redefine how businesses use technology?

Last week Microsoft launched Office 2010, the latest version of their business software suite, promising to “redefine how Australian businesses can use technology to save, innovate and grow.” We’ll be seeing the new version appear on store shelves and bundled with new computers from the end of the month.

Like the last few Office versions the 2010 edition sees incremental tweaks over earlier releases rather than massive changes, most of these improvements recognise how peoples’ computer use is changing with increased emphasis on collaboration and the Internet along with more media editing in Powerpoint and data manipulation tools in Excel. The changes are good, but probably not compelling for most business users.

The biggest changes have been in the SharePoint collaboration tools which is where the Microsoft Office franchise is most threatened by cloud computing services like 37Signals, Google and Zoho. For businesses looking at taking advantage of the impressive range of SharePoint 2010 features the backend capital cost of upgrading servers and desktops to meet the needs of the new system will be substantial and there’ll need to be a very good business case for those levels of investment.

Upgrading paths are an interesting change to Office 2010, for the first time Microsoft is not going to offer deals to users looking at upgrading to the new version. What this probably shows is how effective Microsoft have been in selling recent versions of Office in OEM packages, where the software is sold cheaply with a new computer with the catch it can’t be used on any other system.

Taking away the price inducement for upgraders will mean most businesses without volume licensing agreements will move to Office 2010 as they replace that were bundled with Office 2003 and 2007 suites.

This means there will be a mix of Office 2010, 2007 and, in most businesses, the odd 2003 system so it will be important to test exactly how Office 2010 will work in your business. Microsoft have a trial edition of the new package available for download and you should run that on a test system prior to rolling out Office 2010 in your work environment.

A potential problem for early adopters is with file formats, while Office 2010 uses the same names — .docx, .xlsx and .pptx — as Office 2007, there are subtle differences in the data so setting the new systems to save in the old format is probably going to be the best way to go, although this will disable many of the new features in the 2010 edition.

Promising to redefine how businesses use technology is a pretty big aim and Office 2010 doesn’t achieve that, although it is a solid product that goes some way in recognising how work patterns are changing in the modern connected office. It isn’t a bad buy if you find the older Office versions aren’t available or the free and cloud based alternatives don’t meet your needs.

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Why I won’t be buying an iPad for now

iPad hysteria is in the air. But the smart buyers are waiting for the next version.

This week the Internet is alive with tech journalists and Apple fans breathlessly describing how the iPad is going to change business and the world. All of their predictions may well be true, but it’s best holding off buying an iPad until the hype cycle runs its course.

Right now, iPad users are in classic bleeding edge territory as the early adopters explore the neat features and the disappointing drawbacks of the new device. There will be joy and tears as they make their journey.

It’s great they are making those discoveries as this knowledge will make life easier for the later adopters and Apple will address many of the disappointments in their next version, which is the main reason for holding off buying the first version.

We saw this with the iPhone — the early adopters rushed into buying it even though it wasn’t a particularly well featured device. A year after the original iPhone release, the new 3G model addressed most of the dissatisfaction with the original model. It was a better, cheaper product.

Exactly the same thing will happen with the iPad, and that’s why you should save your pennies. Almost certainly the next version of the iPad will include multitasking, without which you can’t be talking on Skype while editing your LinkedIn profile and will probably prove the biggest headache to iPad users.

Where the iPad may really change things is in the retail, logistics and medical industries. All of these sectors have seen some adoption of tablet computers, but the clunky, overpriced Windows based tablets have held the market back. The cheaper, lighter and better designed Apple device will probably accelerate the take up of tablet devices and the business methods that work with them.

The retail angle shouldn’t be understated. We recently looked at how iPhone products like Redlazer are changing the retail industry and Smart Company’s Craig Reardon recently described how Australian retailers are being left behind by the net.

It’s no coincidence one of the first business applications for the iPad is a point of sale application. Should the next iPad version be released with a rear mounted camera, it will be more than a glorified cash register and deliver some serious power to smaller retailers.

The iPad further illustrates just how pervasive computing and the internet is capable of challenging established business models. If you’re ignoring how tools like the iPad, mobile Internet, cloud computing and social media are changing your business then your company probably isn’t going to be around in a few years time.

While it’s best to hold off buying an iPad right now, you can’t ignore the changes it presents to business. By waiting you make sure you get the best return on your technology investment.

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The lost generation of computers and Microsoft’s new opportunity

Will Google help Microsoft capture the lost generation of computers. Google’s dropping of support for Internet Explorer 6 is a great opportunity for Microsoft

From March 13 Google will cease supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6. This presents a great opportunity for Microsoft to grab the lost generation of computer users.

The lost generation are the computer users who’ve skipped the last few five year cycles of computer upgrades. There’s two reasons for this; Windows Vista’s well deserved poor reputation and the concept of Good Enough Computing.

While Vista has a lot to answer for, good enough computing iss the main villain — for most household and business users, a Pentium IV running Windows 98 or XP with Internet Explorer 6 was good enough for their daily computer needs.

So Google’s move to abandon older browsers is going to force many of that lost generation to upgrade. This means those running computers more than six years old will probably be looking at new systems rather than the expense and compromises of upgrading.

A year ago, the smart money would have been on many of those new machines being netbooks running Linux with a good proportion of Apple Macs, however Microsoft’s release of Windows 7 has turned the tables and it’s fairly safe to say most upgraders will be sticking with Windows.

Which is a great opportunity for Microsoft to claw back market share and revenue although this doesn’t come without its challenges.

Microsoft’s challenge lies in convincing buyers to upgrade their other software. Many of these people will baulk at spending several hundred dollars on new office, photo editing or entertainment software and given much of it is available as cloud based systems the asking price will be steep.

For home and business computer owners the next month will be the time to consider if your older computers are due for an upgrade. If you find they stop doing the things you want or are are slow and unreliable then it might be time to consider your upgrade options.

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Thoughts on Windows 7

With the release of Windows 7 Microsoft has formally buried Microsoft Vista. But should Windows users rush out for the new version.

“From today, when we say Windows we’re talking about Windows 7”, announced Jeff Putt, Windows Consumer Lead of Microsoft Australia last week. And with that, Microsoft formally buried Windows Vista at their Sydney Windows Seven launch.

We won’t miss Vista, it was slow, clunky and irritating to use. Like Microsoft’s previous OS disaster, Windows ME, it was a hybrid of new and old technologies that managed to satisfy few users.

Vista’s poor reputation effectively broke the upgrade cycle where businesses and consumers replace their computers roughly every five years. Rather than taking their chances with Vista, PC owners decided to stick with their ageing XP boxes.

So Windows 7 is being held out as the saviour of the computer industry as Microsoft’s customers are expected to rush into long overdue upgrades. Some commentators predict the new operating system will reinvigorate PC sales that have been battered worldwide by the Global Financial Crisis.

The reality is probably a bit more complex, there’s no doubt the combination of the global downturn and customers putting off computer purchases hurt the industry, but to expect a surge of sales may be optimistic.

Most computer users are a cynical bunch who have heard all the hype before and won’t be rushing out to buy anything just because some bloke on the web tells them it’s the greatest thing since Wordperfect 5.1. The days of crowds waiting to buy the latest operating system are long gone, at least in the PC world.

While it isn’t worthwhile queuing up on a cold morning for Windows 7, the new program is a vast improvement on Vista. In a hopelessly unscientific experiment, I installed a complimentary copy of Window 7 Ultimate supplied by Microsoft on my wife’s cranky, Vista supplied laptop.

The results were good. Boot up time was reduced by 34% to 55 seconds while Internet Explorer loaded twice as fast and Word 2003 documents opened a whopping 300% faster.

For the record, the machine isn’t exactly a powerhouse being an Acer Extensa 5220 Celeron 2GHz CPU with 512Mb of RAM ­– exactly the sort of machine that should never have been supplied with Windows Vista in the first place, which was part of Vista’s problems.

So my experience with Windows Seven has been so far favourable. If you have been through pain with Vista, it may be worth upgrading although you will probably find driver and software problems won’t be solved by the new program.

For XP systems it almost certainly isn’t worth the upgrade to Seven as the process requires a fresh install, substantially increasing the cost, time and risk involved in making the move.

Overall, XP machines are best replaced outright as many are well past their retirement date as owners have held off being forced into buying Vista machines.

If upgrading or buying Windows 7 systems is on the horizon then you should start preparing now. Get a few Windows Seven machines and test them in your office; monitor how they go with your critical line of business systems, check they connect properly to your network and start getting familiar with the quirks and differences in the new system.

While Windows 7 isn’t flawless, Microsoft have learned from the mistakes they made from Vista, it is faster and so far seems less irritating and more stable. If you are struggling with Vista, or your Windows XP systems are on their last legs, the upgrade will probably be worthwhile.

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Buying a new computer

While computers are a tool, they are unique in their flexibility, and every user has different needs. So these suggestions are based on pretty generic use – if you have a specific application, or you’re a high-end user, then you really need to make sure your system meets your requirements.

This article originally appeared in Smart Company.

After discussing tech purchases my Smart Company column two weeks ago, a few readers have asked what they should be looking for in a new computer.

The answer, like everything in IT, is “it depends”.

While computers are a tool, they are unique in their flexibility, and every user has different needs. So these suggestions are based on pretty generic use – if you have a specific application, or you’re a high-end user, then you really need to make sure your system meets your requirements.

CPU

Some people obsess about chip speeds and processor specs. The ugly truth is it barely matters for most users. Don’t sweat all the CPU mumbo-jumbo and leave the “front side bus” penis envy to others who don’t have work to do.

Hard drive

If you are connecting to a network, hard drive space isn’t critical. For a desktop computer, 320Gb drives are the standard entry point, and 160Gb for laptops. If you are running a home office or you handle lots of media files, then 750Gb or a terabyte (1000Gb) may be the way to go.
If you are considering netbooks then you will find hard drive space is far smaller, with as little as 9Gb; this is OK if you intend to store files on network servers or out on the internet cloud.

Memory

This is the easy bit – the more memory the better. All good value systems come with 2Gb and an upgrade to 4Gb is money well spent.

Graphics card

Video capacity is where cheap systems fall down. Many entry level systems use “shared memory” where the video system shares the work with the CPU. These systems perform dreadfully on Windows Vista and struggle to support higher resolutions.
Spend the extra and go for a video card with at least 256Mb of RAM. Many units have the option of going up to 512 and 764Mb, although I’d prefer to spend the money on system memory before video cards. Your view might be different to mine though.

Monitor

On desktops, the bigger the better. Go for a 20″, 22″ or 24″ monitor. Get two monitors and you’ll see office productivity soar.

Portables are a different kettle of fish. Personally I love the compact 7″ netbooks for their weight and size, but many people prefer 15″ screens. When choosing a laptop, you need to make a compromise between price, screen size and weight that meets your needs and budget.

Optical drives

DVD-R/W is still the way to go. You don’t save much by leaving the writing function out, and being able to burn disks from your system is handy. Ignore BluRay as it remains expensive with little take up in the market.

Networking

Some real cheap and nasty machines may still have 100Mbit ethernet. Avoid these like the plague. If it doesn’t have a gigabit ethernet don’t buy it.

Similarly, all laptops have wireless capabilities and the 801.11g standard (54Mbit) is the norm. Most laptops now have some version of the newer 801.11n standard, but keep in mind the final 801.11n standard won’t be released until the end of this year.

Warranties

Three years is the only way to go; don’t consider otherwise. If the computer is mission critical, a same day warranty makes sense, but most businesses go for next business day service to balance cost against reliability.

Mac or Windows

Whenever a SmartCompany blogger wades into the Mac versus Windows argument, Amanda Gome is delighted with the increased site traffic until the server melts down and the death threats start arriving.

Suffice to say, you should use whatever works best for you. It’s your equipment and your business, and no-one else has the right to tell you whether Microsoft, Linux or Apple are better.

Price

Overall, a good business computer to these specs will come in around $1500 for the desktop and $1800 for a portable. Add another 25% for Apple equipment, although the lifetime cost of ownership is around the same for Apple and Windows-based PCs.

That’s a rough idea what to look for when specifying computer systems for your office. Have a good look at your needs and budget and you should be able to find some good bargains to help your business work better.

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Has Microsoft learned anything from Vista?

Microsoft have announced a release date for Windows 7. Have they learned anything from Vista?

CNet’s Ina Fried reports Microsoft has set an October 22 release date for Windows 7, their new operating system to replace the flawed and unpopular Windows Vista.

In an article earlier this year, Ina quoted Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte that Microsoft has learned important lessons from Vista.

One lesson they appear not to have learned is how multiple versions of the product confuses the marketplace and tarnishes their brand.

That we still have FIVE versions of the new system, and that they’ve locked themselves into a release date before the final Release Candidate version, doesn’t bode well for Windows 7.

As usual, the advice for most computer users will be to sit and wait until the first Service Pack is released. I wonder if Microsoft will repeat the bluff of claiming there will be no service pack which failed so dismally with Vista?

Let’s see if they’ve actually learned anything from the humiliation that was Vista.

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Computer hostility

While at the Sydney CeBIT last week, a speaker made a comment about how getting managers to accept social media is a big step given many  proudly complain they know nothing about computers and care even less.

A few days later when flying down to Melbourne for the Future Summit, I read an article by Glenn Wheeler telling how he smashed his computer after getting a virus, an act he said “sent a warm feeling through my body.”

Bizarre.

I’ve long lost count of the people who tell me they are proud to know nothing about computers but I still get rattled by people who are openly and proudly hostile to technology.

The problem for these people is they are being left behind, just like the Luddites they are well on their way to becoming a historical curiousity.

That’s fine for Glenn and other individuals, it’s good not to know anything about anything if you wish to be ignorant. But a business that chooses to ignore technology is quickly losing ground to smarter competitors.

Ignorance isn’t a good look at any time, but it’s even worse when it’s killing your business.

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