Microsoft delivered a comprehensive set of new and/or revised products under the "Office System" name. The core products that have traditionally been associated with "Office" received very minor upgrades and changes -- eg, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The Outlook email client received much needed attention with an improved user interface, enhanced spam fighting tools, and a re-organised layout.
The "major" points about Office System 2003 are:
1. The development emphasis at Microsoft has shifted from individual user productivity, to group productivity. That's very appropriate -- Microsoft can hardly help us end users type faster. Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) -- a component of Windows Server 2003 that provides a self-organising team workspace paradigm for sharing files rather than traditional file shares -- is very compelling, and well integrated with other products in the System. Eg, Project Server 2003 can use WSS for document sharing. Obviously, IBM Lotus has been very adept at offering self-organising team workspace-style offerings since the early days of Notes, but this is a strategic end-game play from Microsoft to embrace the market from the lower end.
2. Although there are a large number of products in the System, Microsoft has finally got a coherent and structured strategy for human collaboration, albeit one that requires a total embrace of Microsoft infrastructure (and if history holds true, the litany of associated security patches, virus vulnerabilities, etc). It's lacked a coherent strategy for a long time.
3. Presence (whether a person is online) and availability (is that person available to chat or not) are threaded throughout the System, assuming that Live Communications Server 2003 is deployed. This means that people can initiate communication with others via IM, conferencing, an IP voice call, or email, by right-clicking on the name.
In sum, the Office System will divide the world into two fundamental camps:
1. Those that are willing to embrace Microsoft's collaboration strategy in its totality; and
2. Those that are not.
More later.
References, on Outlook 2003:
CRN, Test Center: Outlook 2003 Deserves A Look
