Microsoft Office is the de facto standard for productivity software: millions of us use it every day to write letters, produce spreadsheets and create presentations. But few of us know which version we are using, or could really care less. So Microsoft will have a hard time convincing users to upgrade when it releases Office 2007 in the new year.

‘It’s getting progressively harder for Microsoft to persuade people to replace their operating system and productivity software every few years,’ says Mark Bartrick, managing director of Silver Bullet Associates, a procurement consultancy that helps organisations negotiate the best deals from software suppliers. ‘It’s not like a new Harry Potter book, with people queuing at midnight to get their hands on the latest instalment,’ he says. ‘People need a good reason to part with their money.’

Not surprisingly, accountants are equally prudent. ‘Software upgrades don’t happen as a matter of course in the firm, or among its clients,’ says Martin Minnett, partner at Hillier Hopkins and chairman of the IT users’ committee of the UK 200 Group of accounting firms. ‘People tend to stick with what they know, unless there’s a good reason to change.’

Value for money

Ian Sumbler, one of six partners at accountancy firm Morris Owen, agrees. ‘We have to demonstrate real business benefits to justify spending money on software. I’ve seen demonstrations of Office 2007 at Iris World and at Microsoft over the past few weeks, and I don’t think it brings anything to the table that makes an upgrade inevitable. It’s very much a case of evolution rather than revolution,’ he says.

Office 2007 will introduce changes that could be good news for accountants and some of their clients. These include a more intuitive interface, easier blogging from Word, improved spam control in Outlook and better performance in Excel. But the features that Microsoft seems most excited about may not set the accounting profession alight with enthusiasm.

‘I get the impression that Microsoft is pushing the benefits of Share Point,’ says Sumbler, ‘but it has been around for a while now and I’ve never heard it mentioned by a single client.’ When Morris Owen wants to share documents, it uses email and Word. If multiple partners are looking at a document simultaneously, one will have the read-write file and the others open a read-only version. If they want to send a document with a client they simply email it. ‘I can see how useful Share Point could be for someone in a large organisation, but it does nothing for us,’ he adds.

Microsoft is also rather proud of its new Ribbon user interface. ‘It’s the one and only place to look for functionality in the product,’ says Jensen Harris, lead programme manager on the Microsoft Office user experience team. ‘If you want to look through Word 2003 to find an unfamiliar command, you need to look through three levels of hierarchical menus, open up 31 toolbars and peruse about 20 task panes,’ he explains. Ribbon consolidates all the entry points into one place. ‘So if you’re trying to find a feature and don’t know where it is, the scope of your search is drastically reduced,’ he asserts.

Double-edged sword

It’s great news for new users, or people who make only intermittent use of some features, but anyone who knows their way around an application may find it a trifle irritating. ‘It’s a double-edged sword,’ says Sumbler. ‘It’s intuitive, so if you’re in charts, the Ribbon changes to show the charts toolbar, which is nice,’ he says. That said, if you are used to working on autopilot in Excel you could find it confusing. ‘It could take some getting used to,’ he adds.

In a world where software upgrades are free and users don’t mind learning how to reinvent the wheel, Microsoft’s new release of Office might just fly off the shelves. But in the real world where change comes at a price, it is likely to take its place alongside all the other versions of Office that organisations can find no good reason to upgrade.

‘Office 2007 is just more of the same, with a few new bits,’ says Bartrick, so it isn’t a must-have purchase. ‘I think most organisations will simply carry on as they are.’

Cost control

If you’ve got a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft, opted for software assurance (at some point), and timing is on your side, you will automatically be upgraded to Office 2007 when it becomes available. If not, you will either carry on with the other versions of Office you have in place, or acquire the latest version of the productivity software via the cheapest route possible.

Most software applications are compatible with multiple versions of Excel, so you don’t need to panic. Some time next year, when Office 2007 starts shipping on machines leaving the factory, you will be able to acquire a copy of the latest release for the price of a PC – which will probably be about the same time as most clients.

Ian Sumbler, partner at Morris Owen, says his firm does not have a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft, but it does not plan to rush out and upgrade all of its machines. It will be taking the most economical approach to making sure it has at least one machine with Office 2007 as soon as it has a client using it.

‘In theory, there shouldn’t be any compatibility problems between different versions of Office,’ explains Sumbler. But the firm wants to be certain that clients can use the new features in Office 2007 without causing any problems. ‘When that time comes, we will simply buy a new PC,’ he says.

Lesley Meall is a freelance business and technology journalist