Know What You’re Up Against
If you are considering switching to one of
these suites, you need to factor in all the less obvious soft costs,
way beyond the purchase price.
First, you will have tremendous migration
costs with testing and piloting, file conversion and training of
administrators and end users.
Also, you will find nowhere near the number of
third-party applications and add-ins written for these alternative
products.
Finally, because most of your customers, suppliers and business
partners have likely standardized on Microsoft Office, switching to
another suite might make sharing files going forward much more
difficult.
Corel WordPerfect and Lotus SmartSuite Action Items
How committed is your company to Microsoft
Office?
If you roll back the calendar five years or
more, was there a time when your company ran alternative
productivity suites? What made you switch to Microsoft Office?
Have you ever investigated alternatives to
Microsoft Office? Were they practical for your company's needs?
Do you know how to estimate the soft costs of migrating your entire
company to an alternative office automation suite?
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