Microsoft's announcement that Office 2007 will join Windows Vista in being delayed is a further blow to the credibility of the firm, but is unlikely to have a major effect on most organisations' IT plans.

The software giant said that Office will be available for volume licensing customers in October, but will not appear in retail outlets or pre-installed on PCs until January next year. Last month, Microsoft announced a similar delay to Vista, the next release of its Windows desktop client.

Office 2007 is intended to take the productivity suite from being a largely client-based environment to one that extends across the network for workflow and collaboration. Some observers believe Office 2007 is at least as important as Vista.

"Surprises are never good for businesses but we're much more focused on the possibilities for Office workflow rather than Vista desktop or even server," said Mitchell Hill, chief executive of Avanade, a Microsoft and Accenture joint-venture services group.

But apart from those early-adopters who have been delaying PC refreshes in anticipation of the new Windows and Office, the wait is unlikely to effect enterprise deployment plans.

According to a survey of over 4,000 business and IT professionals by Macehiter Ward-Dutton, just 12 percent said they were likely to deploy Vista within a year of availability.

However, the delays could be bad news for Microsoft customers whose subscription licences expire before the release date.

Analyst Gartner said that firms with volume licensing agreements that run out after September 2006 "should pressure Microsoft to extend new version rights to Windows Vista, no matter when it ships".

Gartner said it did not expect significant Vista business deployments until 2008.