Microsoft Corp today announced the completion of the core products in the new Microsoft Office System and has released all products to manufacturing, marking a critical step in the delivery of the company`s most powerful and valuable release of Office.
The Microsoft Office System is composed of industry-leading productivity programs, servers and services, and includes programs such as the Microsoft Office 2003 editions, and the 2003 versions of Microsoft Office programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, Visio, FrontPage and Publisher.
The abilities in the core products can be extended in Microsoft Office System solutions by taking advantage of the productivity-enhancing capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Meeting and the three new programs: Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 and Microsoft Office OneNote 2003.
The Microsoft Office System is the result of one of the largest and most successful development efforts and beta tests in Microsoft history. More than 600 000 beta testers - approximately three times the participants in previous beta tests - provided Microsoft with detailed feedback over the past year, allowing the company to develop the most innovative and stable Office products to date.
Customers embracing new strategic business asset
Customers that have started to adopt the new Microsoft Office System are already experiencing increased productivity through better access to their information and improved collaboration capabilities.
Microsemi Corp, a semiconductor manufacturer, implemented an XML-based product catalogue for 3 000 complex technical product datasheets documents using the Microsoft Office System.
"We chose a Microsoft Office System solution composed of InfoPath 2003, Office 2003 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to help us convert our product datasheets from static, formatted documents into XML, which allows us to represent all content as logical data, separate from formatting," said Mark Stanley, corporate IT manager at Microsemi. "We anticipate this Microsoft Office System solution will cut our datasheet production processes and costs significantly, allowing us to better respond to customer needs."
Value of the Microsoft Office System
The release of the Microsoft Office System represents an important evolution from standalone desktop applications to an integrated, comprehensive tool set that more easily connects people, information and business processes to enhance individual, team and organisational productivity. The familiar Office programs, combined with built-in support for industry standards such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), better enable individuals and businesses to meet their evolving information work challenges.
"The release to manufacturers of the Microsoft Office System is a milestone, not only in terms of the unprecedented development and testing work that went into it, but also because it enables customers to piece together data and operational aspects of their business where the real work happens: at individuals` desktops," said Steven Sinofsky, senior vice-president of the Information Worker Group at Microsoft.
"The value of software is measured in how you use it, and never before has it been so easy for businesses to derive such incredible value from their software investments."
The Microsoft Office System creates "smart" clients, which offer the ability to use Microsoft`s familiar software interfaces as front-end connections to simplify the use of complex back-end line-of-business applications. Support for XML and other industry standards enables seamless communication between Microsoft Office programs and applications from independent software vendors, and lays a foundation for the addition of real-time data and Web services for even greater business value. Improvements in Outlook, Exchange, Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server provide new capabilities, making it as efficient as possible for individuals, teams and organisations to collaborate.
In addition to the benefits for business, Microsoft Office System continues to deliver improved and innovative tools to individual users designed to help them achieve unparalleled personal productivity. Building upon familiar tools and interfaces, the programs in the Microsoft Office System provide new features that enable individuals to work more effectively, make better decisions and capture their ideas. A redesign of Outlook allows people to better organise the mountains of mail they are receiving today and helps fight spam with the addition of junk mail filters. The new Reading Mode in Word and Research Task Panes in all programs help people easily access and use information they need, and Office Online has been greatly enhanced to provide users with contextual help and much more. Microsoft is committed to continuing to focus on productivity at the individual level to give people the tools they need to succeed.
Creating new opportunities for partners
Microsoft partners, such as technology solution providers, value-added resellers and systems integrators, can benefit from the new Microsoft Office System by taking advantage of common user interfaces and XML support to build exciting, new solutions that allow customers to gain greater access to their data while maintaining ease of use. These partners can generate new business by leveraging the Microsoft Office System to more easily connect customers` legacy systems to the workers who use them and design new solutions to integrate with customers` existing business processes.
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The Microsoft Office System is an easy way to help more people use information to positively impact their business. Through a system of familiar and easy-to-use programs, servers and services, users can connect people and organisations to information, business processes and each other - helping ensure they derive the most value out of information.
The Microsoft Office System consists of the 2003 editions of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Office Project and Project Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 and Microsoft Office Visio 2003. Enabling technologies, such as Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Windows Server 2003, enhance the features and functionality of products in the Microsoft Office System.
Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device.
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