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White Paper
Managing & Deploying Desktop Productivity Platforms Comparing Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org
A Knowledge-Driven Consulting® White Paper © 2010 Hitachi Consulting Corporation
Sponsored by:
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Executive Summary
The complexity and cost of deploying and managing productivity software has unintended and far reaching consequences and as such, this paper will discuss the reality of potential deployment and management impacts and compare the differences in Microsoft Office 2010 and OpenOffice.org. Hidden costs and ongoing maintenance of the software is often not considered in the procurement process and in turn become an application managers’ long term burden, this paper provides insight and guidance into this notoriously cloudy area. The ability to configure and deploy applications on an enterprise basis has changed drastically to support the multiple applications and the complex software configurations your end users demand. IT professionals should expect the ability to support these capabilities and not be locked in to an application administration process that is more difficult than it needs to be. The ability to configure and install software to desktops accurately and efficiently is the key to enabling the productivity and security of your organization. This document will help you tell what to expect from the process of deploying and managing productivity software. In today’s competitive business climate, decision makers are looking to make qualified assessments regarding desktop productivity platforms. A large part of that assessment is how to deploy the software and what it will take to manage it in the long term. Deployment and manageability of productivity software like Microsoft Office 2010 or OpenOffice.org at an enterprise level is often seen as a straightforward endeavor, but there can be pitfalls and as such a deeper look at what meets your needs is warranted. Too often application managers are caught by unforeseen consequences of their software purchasing decisions. You should consider the process for deploying and managing software, the tools and skills needed to support employee productivity and business insight, and finally the risks and hidden costs that you may encounter in order to make an informed and viable decision. Microsoft Office has long been the front-runner in productivity, delivering innovations that have changed the way we work today. OpenOffice.org has been examined frequently due to its relatively low barrier to entry, and free to low cost license fees attract attention when costs are considered. However, risks and hidden costs are not clear and often outweigh potential benefits. This document tells the real story at an enterprise level looking at productivity platforms and their inherent risks and benefits. We have found with OpenOffice.org the documentation, tools and technologies are not as robust across the application deployment lifecycle and that deployments with OpenOffice.org cannot be configured, deployed or managed in a fashion that is expected in today’s environment. OpenOffice.org does not provide for critical capabilities to help improve efficiencies of IT departments including the ability to incrementally update desktops, to the quality of documentation for non-standard deployments, or tools to help migrate customizations and many more. It also exerts additional pressures on your staff in large deployments from adding additional recommended software (Java JRE) to give full functionality, requiring administrative privileges to update or install the software in a managed environment or by lacking the ability to monitor and manage machines for proper updates. These limitations can expose your organization to increased risks and costs. The impacts with using OpenOffice.org range from a decrease in support across the planning and preparation phase to more manual and complex configuration process to fewer deployment strategies to a less predictable update cycle and support that is hard to track down. To display the strengths and limitations across the lifecycle we have compiled the following application experience comparison to assist decision makers in comparing the features, gaps and risks that each piece of software provides.
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Application Experience Comparison: Here are the results of our assessment in comparing Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org across the application development lifecycle. It maps common considerations organizations may have across the lifecycle to our comparison of the two productivity platforms.
Ro
le
CIO and VP of IT Application
Management Application
Management Application
Management
Application Management and
users
Application Management
and users
Co
nsi
de
rati
on
s
• Examining IT costs and budgeting
• Building the business case for change
• Impact statement • Analyzing environment
(Hardware and Software) for compatibility
• Approvals and procurement
• Detailed environmental assessment
• Migration planning
• Compatibility and remediation planning
• Application and file compatibility checking
• Preparing the infrastructure/planning network install point
• Customizing the software setup
• Customize software setup
• Configuring user and computer settings
• Run Set up based on migration methods
• Migrate files • Remediate file
and application issues
• Ongoing application management and security
• Requests for additional functionality
• Support application issues and bugs
• Provide documentation
• Consume information
• Train end-users on new functionality
Mic
roso
ft O
ffic
e 20
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The combination of tools and resources focus on making enterprise application planning more successful. • Microsoft Office provides
business case tools and assistance to help organizations determine financial and non-financial impacts
• The Migration Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit performs a detailed analysis of hardware and device compatibility for migration.
Significant investment in tailoring software to specific needs of your environment and applications. • Office
Environment Assessment Tools
• Office Migration Planning Manager
• Office Code compatibility checker
• Compatibility Assessment and Remediation guides
The level of configuration and customization allows you to do what makes sense from a financial and environmental perspective. • Microsoft Office
has the following configuration options available: *Network Share *Group Policy start up scripts *Managed deployment *Application Virtualization *Presentation Virtualization
Enhanced flexibility to deploy the software and tools to increase preparedness by identifying issues. • Microsoft
Office has guidance for multiple deployment strategies.
• Microsoft provides tools to assist with testing remediating issues.
Office has tools and resources available that allows the enterprise to make the software more secure and tailored to user groups. • Ability to
automatically update software
• Ability to change user configurations (post deployment)
• Ability to Quarantine non-updated machines
• Ability to manage users language packs
Microsoft office support and training resources provide the peace of mind that you are receiving the right information. • Microsoft
TechNet Website
• 24/7 and telephone support available
• Documentation ownership and governance
Op
enO
ffic
e.o
rg 3
.x
Easy to download the software, but planning for large deployments does not have a focus. • OpenOffice.org.org
provides system requirements and user manual
• Planning support can be found on community-based web pages and blogs.
Organizations are on the hook for their own planning instead of support from a trusted partner. • Documentation
that is focused from a single user perspective instead of from the enterprise perspective.
Customization and configuration is possible with increased risk to costs and time spent in technical set-up. • Third party
support and add-on’s to assist with configuration.
The organization is exposed to more risk and effort in file and application inventories conversion. • Third party
support and add-on’s to assist with enterprise deployments
OpenOffice.org has the ability to update its software but the process can interfere with end user extensions.
• Manual updates • Not able to
quarantine out of date machines
The training documentation is disjointed and hard to tell what is applicable • Offline help • Users manual • Community based
tips and guidance
Planning Prepartaion Configuration Deployment Updates Training &
support
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ________________________________________________ 2
Introduction _______________________________________________________ 5
Managing Desktop Applications ______________________________________ 5
Comparing Approaches _____________________________________________ 5
Planning _____________________________________________________________________________________ 5
Preparation __________________________________________________________________________________ 7
Configuration ________________________________________________________________________________ 8
Deployment _________________________________________________________________________________ 11
Updates ____________________________________________________________________________________ 13
Training & Support __________________________________________________________________________ 15
Overall Comparison _______________________________________________ 19
Conclusion ______________________________________________________ 19
Bibliography _____________________________________________________ 22
Appendix ________________________________________________________ 25
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Introduction
Productivity suite comparisons and discussions are typically overloaded with information on end user features and licensing costs, rarely is there a frank comparison the details of managing the software through the complete lifecycle of the technology. The goal of this whitepaper is expose potential risks, costs, and benefits in the long term application lifecycle of Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org in order to help inform the decision of selecting the right productivity solution. We will examine Microsoft Office 2010 and OpenOffice.org 3.1 in a Windows environment; other open source distributions of OpenOffice.org (i.e. Star Office, Symphony, etc), other operating systems and their associated tools are outside of the scope of this analysis.
Managing Desktop Applications
Whether an organization is deploying or upgrading a productivity suite, they are undergoing a significant application change. The key to success in deploying and managing productivity software is to consider and plan the process in its entirety. The “science” of application management has been around a long time, but procurement decisions often only take into account the planning or preparation perspective and not the complete cycle. The full lifecycle of the application deployment process must be taken in consideration for the success and productivity of your organization. To this end, we have focused the discussion around a 6 step Application Deployment and Management process (planning, preparation, configuration, deployment, updates, and training & support) while this may not exactly fit all organizations we have found in our project experience that these processes are the major components of application deployments.
If one step of the process is not approached correctly it will expose your organization to potential risks and additional costs. If you don’t plan the deployment appropriately you could deploy software when the costs outweigh the benefits or the software and hardware configurations are under spec, increasing software or hardware costs down the line. “One of the biggest chores that administrators have to deal with is application lifecycle management. Whether an office has 20 PCs or 20,000, no one likes the idea of going from machine to machine with an installation CD every time a new version of an application is released. There are programs that are designed to help administrators manage applications across a network, but most tend to be overly complicated and expensive” (Windows Networking, 2008). If the preparation process is not approached correctly compatibility issues can go undetected and substantially increase the impact of remediation and testing efforts. Configuration gaps can decrease user productivity and increase time spent in deployment. Deployment approach issues can impact the organization by increasing planning time or pushing for a deployment solution that doesn’t fit your environment or technical abilities. Issues with the update approach can increase man-hours and expose your organization to risk with machines that have outdated software. Finally training and support process gaps can increase the time spent to get things done and decrease your ability to manage or use the software in its intended fashion.
Comparing Approaches
Planning
The first step in the process is planning. Here every organization needs to take a hard look at what it has from a hardware, software, and security profile perspective, to build out a business case for change and see what makes sense from a financial and non-financial perspective. The planning stage is critical to a successful deployment not only is your organization building the case for the software but it also needs to address compatibility. Microsoft Office has a number of tools and resources to assist with building the business case, determining compatibility (hardware and software) and tailoring security settings to your needs. At a more detailed level the start of any planning process begins with the platform requirements. This is standard material, but it is a must to review the documentation to get off to a good start. From an application lifecycle perspective there are some large differences in how the two approach the planning Process. Microsoft Office has a number of tools and resources available to their customers to assist with building the business case for change, to analyze hardware and software for compatibility, and for planning for security. In contrast OpenOffice.org seems to approach the planning Process via community based advice. As to security planning tools there was no assistance in this area from OpenOffice.org.
Planning Preparation Configuratio
n Deployment Updates
Training & Support
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Process Office 2010 OpenOffice.org 3.1
Planning Microsoft has tools available to assist with building the business case for changing to Office 2010
Tools available to assist with hardware and software inventory and compatibility.
Assistance with assessing your organizations security needs
Office also has a number of pre-configured security profiles available for users
The user guide and community support forums give guidance on hardware and software compatibility
Planning tools
Tools and Resources
Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Description
Microsoft assessment and planning toolkit (MAP)
Toolkit performs a detailed analysis of hardware and device compatibility for migration to Microsoft Office. It examines the installed hardware and determines whether migration is recommended. If it is not recommended, the reports tell you why it is not
N/A
Microsoft software inventory analyzer (MSIA)
Generates an inventory of core Microsoft products installed on a local computer, or throughout a network to assist with determining issues with software during deployment.
N/A
Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT)
Security assessment assistance consisting of more than 200 questions that cover infrastructure, applications, operations, and people. The questions, associated answers, and recommendations are derived from generally accepted best practices, standards such as ISO 17799 and NIST-800.x, and recommendations and prescriptive guidance from the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Group and other external security sources.
N/A
Impacts
Microsoft Office: From the Microsoft side the impact here is that your organization has a broad base of support tools and technologies to help plan your deployment. This will help you be more accurate and efficient in your planning, decreasing the amount of time your resources are spending on developing a plan to deploy the software and ensuring that the plan makes sense for you. OpenOffice.org: If you were undergoing the planning process for OpenOffice.org your organization will be left to its own devices
to plan the deployment. There is a Migration Guide for Version 2.x, which discusses issues you may encounter with migrating to OpenOffice.org from other productivity suites, but there is not an updated version listed on the support page at this time for version 3.x (OpenOffice.org, 2009). This allows for manual identification of potential issues by your IT department, but with a lack of an automated tool you will likely incur additional costs in the planning phase analysis or the post deployment testing of
Planning
Planning
Planning
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your files and applications. With the lack of planning tools (in comparison to Microsoft Office) your organization will have to do a more manual and perhaps lengthy process because you will have to build the tools or analyze hardware and software yourself. A migration planning tool would help to discover compatibility issues, but lacking that your IT staff will need to do the analysis. Hopefully you will also have the background to assess your security needs or you might increase your security risk as well.
Potential Planning impacts:
Increased effort and resource hours in the planning process
Increased time analyzing software and hardware for compatibility issues
Increased time and effort by your resources for to build out the case for changing to OpenOffice.org
Need for specialized skill sets to prepare to deploy the software
Increased time and possibly risks in getting security profiles established
Preparation
The next step is preparation. At this stage the organization has decided to move forward with the deployment and needs to assess their environment and determine the impact to files and applications. The process within Office will scan files and applications determine any possible issues and begin a remediation plan for fixing them, so you are more prepared once you have deployed the software. The preparation process continues to see a similar contrast. Microsoft Office provides a number of tools and resources to help their customers to prepare for software deployments. This includes environmental assessment help, migration planning and strategy, remediation assistance, and community assistance. OpenOffice.org currently does not have a story around environmental assessment, migration planning tools or remediation assistance. They do offer an active user community and a faithful following which can give advice on deployment questions. As to migration strategies Microsoft offers a number of options and with OpenOffice.org there are third party vendors that assist with enterprise level migrations, users can do it themselves but it can be more costly in terms of resources if you don’t have the right skill sets in house.
Process Office 2010 OpenOffice.org 3.1
Preparation Environment assessment tools available
Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) which enables the user to prepare an environment for migration to 2010
Compatibility assessment tools and remediation guides available to help users work through any issues
Microsoft Office has the following migration options available:
o Network Share o Group Policy start up scripts o Managed deployment o Application Virtualization
Presentation Virtualization
Environmental assessment assistance not available
Migration planning assistance not available
OpenOffice.org can be delivered by Network Share, Group Policy, and by Application Virtualization. Support for these would most likely via a third party vendor as documentation was hard to find
Preparation tools
Tools and Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Description
The Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM)
Analyzes an environment and determines issues that you might experience when you convert from Office 97-Office 2003 file formats to the file formats for the 2007 Office system and Microsoft Office 2010 systems.
N/A
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Tools and Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Description
The Office Environment Assessment Tool (OEAT)
Designed to help an organization determine the types of add-ins and the extent to which add-ins for Microsoft Office applications are used on users’ computers.
N/A
The Microsoft Office Code Compatibility Inspector for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
Scans VBA for object model usage that is incompatible with Office 2010. When an inspector finds code that is incompatible with Office 2010, it adds a comment to assist with remediation.
N/A
The Microsoft Office Code Compatibility Inspector for Visual Studio.
Scan VB.NET, and C# code for object model usage that is incompatible with Office 2010. When an inspector finds code that is incompatible with Office 2010, it adds a comment to assist with remediation.
N/A
Impacts
Microsoft Office: With any complex migration there will be issues, what Microsoft Office does that is really nice is that it helps
your organization get in front of that curve, providing tools that will identify potential issues with the environment or with your files and applications. This allows you to better forecast your migration efforts and gives you the technologies to help you deliver your deployment project in a more timely and accurate manner. With Microsoft’s standards of support and previous versions of Office your IT organization gains peace of mind that they can find support in case they have an issue. OpenOffice.org: With OpenOfiice.org you are dependent on the skills of your IT personnel to identify issues in the preparation
phase. Things like macro compatibility between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office has been widely discussed and your organization will need to do an analysis to determine potential impacts. Without the additional analysis tools your organization can encounter increased costs during deployment as well as a reduced ability to forecast what it will take to migrate. Also with OpenOffice.org they have numerous extensions and capabilities to extend the platform. However, they provide no tools or technologies to determine whether those extensions are impacted when you get a new version or update, which impacts the predictability of how the software interacts with the documents and applications your organization has major investment in. There is no Code Compatibility checker to help determine where your issues are.
Potential preparation impacts:
Increased effort and resource hours in the preparation process
Applications with post conversion issues
Reduced ability to forecast conversion efforts
Possible usability impacts to add-in’s
Configuration
The configuration process allows IT administrators to configure and customize the application, access to individual applications and language packs are configured for users or groups of users prior to deployment. Office has a customization tool (OCT) that allows the IT administrator to build custom files to be deployed. This is very helpful if you have different groups or individuals using different feature sets or languages. This process is all about configuration, customization options, and licensing assistance. Microsoft Office offers a couple options for configuring and customizing the software installation and the software will retain the settings if there is an update. Microsoft
Comment [jz1]: Need to do final verification that there is not a macro compatibility checker.
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Office allows the administrator to customize Office with collaboration and email clients like SharePoint and Outlook to help increase end user productivity and application interoperability. They also have tools to manage your enterprise licenses. OpenOffice.org can be customized either through third party assistance or by technically editing the install package. There is a lot traffic regarding this on the community sites with some mixed success so the best bet here is to err on the side of caution if you plan on customizing the software. Any add-ins or dictionaries must be re-installed on the installation of a major update. Customizations and add-ins should also be re-tested after updates to ensure they are working properly, especially paid add-ins as they are managed by third parties.
Process Office 2010 OpenOffice.org 3.1
Configuration Microsoft Office can be customized with the following tools:
o The Office Customization Tool (OCT)(32 and 64 bit versions)
o The Config.XML file o Group Policy settings
Can keep custom configurations and does not need to remove it every time the product needs an update
Administrators are able to customize and deploy the software to users without their interaction
Can use utilities or other third party applications to customize installations by editing the MSI file
Add-ins, dictionaries must be re-installed after a new version has been installed
Can do silent installs without user interaction in older versions, unclear about in 3.1 documentation may need updating
Cannot advertise new features
Configuration tools
Tools & Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Description
The Office Customization Tool (OCT)
Is the primary tool for most customizations. The OCT saves customizations in a Setup customization (.msp) file, which is applied at either setup time or during a maintenance mode operation.
Third party resources and add ins, community forums
Customize toolbars, menus,
shortcut keys, security
settings (virus protection for
macros and Java),
password protection and
privacy options. Personal
settings and templates are
available in the software
options (OpenOffice.org,
2008)
OpenOffice.org extension
manager-Use the extension
manager to add or remove
configuration data or
libraries (OpenOffice.org)
Ability to restrict user
access to program modules
(OpenOffice.org, 2009)
Impacts
Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office offers some great customization tools that allow IT professionals to tailor the software to the needs of groups within their organization. The ability to configure and customize the suite saves time and money in deployment and long term management of Microsoft Office. "The number one benefit to customizing your productivity suite is the Office Customization Toolkit (OCT). As soon as you launch it you can customize Office exactly the way you want it, it saves it down to a single MSP file that you drop in one folder and you are done." (Bryson, 2010). The ease of using graphical user interface to build a single MSP file allows administrators greater ease, control, and flexibility in configuring the software. You can add custom files, registry entries, add short cuts, set feature installation states, specify Office Security settings, and customize Outlook profiles. The Office Configuration Toolkit Interface:
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With Microsoft Office Configuration toolkit you have a professional set of tools built for IT. With OpenOffice.org initial security settings are in your typical tools/options menu and will need to be manually set. If you need to configure mandatory settings IT policies can be set up and enforced via group policy with either platform. With Office the customizations are not affected by update mechanisms unless there is a need to change the configuration. Also within the OCT you can import group policy templates (.adm or .admx files) to leverage predefined security templates that Microsoft makes available. This allows users to easily set up security profiles and levels. If you need a security template that is basic it is provided, if you need an advanced level of security it is provided also. Users can also import MSP files if upgrading from a previous version, which allows you to keep the configuration setup. The Impact of these technologies is that it simplifies maintenance and manageability of complex deployments. OpenOffice.org: Configuring OpenOffice.org allows for fairly standard configuration options like customizing toolbars/menus,
Macro Security settings as well as restricting access to individual program modules. The OpenOffice.org Security Configuration Interface:
The difference here is the technologies that assist in deploying and maintaining user configurations. There is not a native tool with OpenOffice.org that allows you to customize the suite and push it out to different groups in a large managed deployment.
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This can impact the efficiency of the deployment and the depth of configuration. Increased technical skill sets may be necessary to change the MSI file.
Potential configuration impacts:
Increased effort and resource hours in the configuring the software suite process
Increased time in managing user configurations in the long term and after updates
Increased complexity in managing different groups with different configurations
Increased costs associated with third party assistance
Deployment
The deployment process is where the rubber hits the road and application managers put the packages out on network installation points for installation and begin installing the software. Office has 5 different methods of deployment (Network Share, Group Policy Start up Scripts, Managed Deployment, Application Virtualization, and Presentation Virtualization) that can be leveraged depending on your organizations level of IT maturity with guides and tools to support the effort. This process is also where any file remediation would take place to ensure that files and application issues discovered in the preparation phase were fixed and are working properly. The deployment process is different for every organization and there are nuances that can change the deployment strategy. Deployments can be relatively simple and manual or automated and complex. Microsoft Office offers a number of different strategies to tailor your deployment; it also offers a number of technologies and resources to assist you through the process. With OpenOffice.org beyond the relatively basic installation steps available in the documentation the focus shifts to the Application Administrator to figure out not only the method of deployment that suits the need and environment, but also the technical details of how to get it done.
Process Office 2010 OpenOffice.org 3.1
Deployment Provides procedures and guidance for the deployment of the following:
o Setup from a network installation point o Precaching the local installation source o Setup from the local installation source to install
Office 2010 o Deploy Office 2010 to users who are not
administrators o Deploy Office 2010 with limited network capacity
Microsoft provides procedures and guidance for deploying Office via application virtualization
Third party enterprise deployment tools are available
Application Virtualization support can be found via third party and community support forums
Deployment tools
Tools and Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Description
Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT)
Assists with user files and settings migration during large deployments of Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. USMT captures desktop and application settings, user accounts and users' files, and then migrates them to a new Windows installation
Third party resources, community forums
Provides a simple Migration
Guide (OpenOffice.org, 2010)
Provides a high level
Administration Guide
(OpenOffice.org, 2010)
OpenOffice.org Support area
Third Party deployment
examples:
Enterprise edition of Star
Office &Star Suite- Third
party assistance.
SCAI Migration analysis-
third party migration tool
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Tools and Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Description
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
Assesses, deploys, and updates servers, client computers, and devices and provides up-to-date information about the manageability of client computers in a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 hierarchy. A site administrator can use this information to identify individual client problems and to maintain a more accurate site database. The information can also help increase software distribution success rates.
N/A
Impacts
Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office deployments are backed by a number of technologies from Microsoft which eases the
transition to a new version or first time implementation. "If you use the Office Configuration Toolkit, Group Policy administration, and the Microsoft Configuration Manager it makes an Office deployment pretty easy and painless" (Bryson, 2010). The ability to manage and deploy Microsoft Office assists in reducing deployment costs and risks while providing users a flexible roadmap to deploy the software. With the number of options of deploying Office whether it is via Network Share or, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Office offers the technologies and support resources for deploying the software to match your level of IT Maturity. With Office 2010, Microsoft is also offering the click to run streaming technology which allows you to stream the deployment based on core virtualization and streaming technologies. Click-to-Run is optimized for those with at least a broadband connection (least 1Mbps) and can be used for Office Home and Student 2010, and Office Home and Business 2010 products. OpenOffice.org: The level of documentation around deploying OpenOffice.org.org is in our opinion is not adequate. The available deployment documentation is disjointed and not easy to find for complex or nonstandard deployment methods. It is not that the documentation is not out there, but you have to spend a significant amount of time searching forums and mail lists to find guidance on any method beyond the standard deployment model which may not work for everyone. To quote Microsoft “IT can be constrained with rigid delivery models, forced to focus energy on "making it work", which costs time and money. “ (Microsoft, 2010). You can see how this applies when technology professionals attempt the to deploy OpenOffice.org in a non-standard manner, users flock to the blogs and associated support sites to find methods that are more applicable to their level of maturity or to have the deployment tailored to their environment.“If you have a medium to large business and are running Active Directory, you'll be interested to know that some IT folks have had varying degrees of success in deploying OpenOffice.org 2.0 via Group Policy using standard techniques.” (Tech Republic, 2006). The impact of not having the technologies or deployment options that are readily available with Office is that you run the risk of having to hire third party support to do it for you. Given the limited number of organizations using OpenOffice.org resources with experiences in nonstandard deployments you are likely to find them hard to come by which could cost you more time and money in bringing a partner up to speed or paying more for a scarce set of technical capabilities. Either way, deployment costs and risks can increase because your IT department is focusing
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making it work rather than the software providing them with the deployment methods that are more configurable to your environment. Another impact to deploying OpenOffice.org is the Java component."A challenge of OpenOffice.org 3 is that it is recommended to have Sun’s Java Runtime Engine to run. Historically, this has been a challenge for IT administrators to deploy the software on machines where the end user doesn’t have local administrator rights. This makes it exceedingly difficult to implement and support in a large enterprise environment” (Leiter, 2010). If you have a large managed environment without local administration rights deploying the software becomes much more manual in nature reducing the efficiency of the install and possibly increasing your IT costs.
Potential deployment impacts:
Increased effort and resource hours in the deployment process
Increased time and research put in to make the deployment work
More manual interaction which increases risk
Increased costs associated with third party solutions
Updates
With the deployment activities completed, the software is now deployed and the applications will need updating. With the update process you really start in on the manageability of the application, updating the software or changing post deployment user settings.
Microsoft Office allows for the updating of its products in service packs, security updates, and patches. Microsoft Office can be updated with no need to uninstall the software or reinstall user customizations. With Microsoft Office the user gets a sense of rhythm, over the years they have been updating the product with new features that not only increase security, but also increase functionality. The ability to plan and predict updates is very important for managing IT resources. With that ability your IT resources can be more efficient, without predictability in the planning cycle you can incur a big financial impact. Microsoft gives that baseline expectation to your IT department with Patch Tuesdays giving them the insight to improve their work planning related to software updates. With OpenOffice.org the software updates are more loosely defined or are being driven by the requests of the community. Updates are not discussed in a weekly forum like Patch Tuesday, so your IT teams that are working on managed projects may find it difficult to switch cycles if you have an unexpected security fix. OpenOffice.org also has to be removed and reinstalled with major updates causing the administrator to have to reinstall any customizations or add-ins; which seems like a lot of extra work.
Process Office 2010 OpenOffice.org 3.1
Updates Major releases are aimed at driving productivity whether it is increasing interoperability of software or collaboration
Using OCT the administrator can make changes to the installation
Via Windows update users can select the type of updates that they want to load into their environment. Administrators can control updates in a managed environment via WSUS
Provides Patch Tuesday weekly forum for IT professionals to determine what security updates will be made available.
Updates seem to be driven by the whim of the community or the current defects, there does not seem to be a strategy towards driving long term IT maturity
Users must uninstall and re-install the entire package to receive updates
Changes are packaged into the next version of software. Customers can not select changes
Centrally managed updates can be pushed out via third party Software (OpenOffice-Enterprise).
Update tools
Tools and Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Description
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Tools and Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Description
Microsoft Update
Allows users who connect directly to the Internet to manage their own computers and download the latest software updates. Users can set up an automatic schedule to periodically check for and retrieve updates
OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org 3.1 has ability to
check for updates built in. If the
update is major the user will
need to uninstall and then install
the update.
Java JRE updates are handled
separately.
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
Deploys the latest product updates within your corporate network in a managed environment. WSUS connects to Microsoft Update to retrieve the latest software updates and synchronizes the updates with your corporate WSUS server. You can configure an automatic or manual synchronization
N/A
Impacts
Microsoft Office: For home or business users Microsoft Office has made the update experience for the most part a seamless
and straightforward affair. In unmanaged environments Windows update notifies users of updates to functionality or security and allows them to opt in or out depending on their needs, which is extremely user friendly and they always stay current. For managed enterprise environments Windows Server Update Services pushes selected updates to PC’s on the network and allows the IT professional to target or quarantine machines that need updating without the local user having to be an administrator automatically. Microsoft has a security enhanced environment to release patches, which provides a predictable planning cycle for your IT department. Patch Tuesday a monthly forum is on the same Tuesday of the month, IT can determine what is new and figure out whether or not they need to push out the update or security patch. Versus OpenOffice.org which is reactionary in its updates, you never know when the next version is going to come out. The impact of these technologies and update support mechanisms is that it allows users to keep the software up to date and secure to reduce risks to secur ity and data while making the process easier and with fewer technical hurdles while providing IT with a predictable and manageable environment.
OpenOffice.org: The update experience with OpenOffice.org is trickier if you have a managed environment as there are no native
tools to lockdown machines that have not received an update. Updates are a locally driven end user mechanism where local admin rights are needed. This puts more pressure on your IT staff to monitor and enforce updates or increases your risk if you rely on individuals updating their own machines. The lack of predictability around updates also puts pressure on IT, with no weekly forum to discuss new updates OpenOffice.org impacts resource planning and IT efficiency. Updates will require you to uninstall and re-install the software which can have impacts on any add-in’s or language packs. OpenOffice.org also recommends that you install the Java JRE which is another component your administrators will have to monitor to keep it up to date. In our research we also found that the update mechanism gave us mixed results, the option to choose to update the software from the file menu did not work (See Appendix A.3), but were able to get the update via the update icon in the software. When researched the updating mechanism seems to be a common issue (see links in appendix3).This can cause users to have a confusing experience and decrease adoption of the updater. The process once initiated is manual in nature pointing the user to download and run the installer. The impact of OpenOffice.org’s updating mechanism is that it can be more intensive to maintain and monitor as well as ensuring compliance with updates, all of which increase risk that you users miss out on important updates. If you require pushing updates out to a managed environment third party tools can be utilized which can increase your costs.
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Potential update impacts:
Increased effort and resource hours in the Update process
Decreased ability to install updates where admin rights are required
Increased confusion on method of updating
Increased effort in monitoring software for updates
Increased risk that updates are not delivered in timely manner
Increased security exposure if machines are not updated properly
Increased third party costs with managed environments
Training & Support
Training and support is the final step in the process. This includes defect tracking, software support, documentation management and availability, and finally end user training. Microsoft Office has a number of options for training and support for from the application help menus with online and offline capabilities, to the technical help website, to a plethora of community and external support. The process for deploying and managing Microsoft Office was designed to provide a support structures at each stage of the process. Microsoft has designed tools, reference guides and technical support to give their customers professional support at each stage of the deployment and management process. Every organization has its own individual IT ecosystem, which varies dramatically from one organization to the next. Microsoft understands that and has put effort into putt ing together training and support resources for deployment or application management that will align with your IT capabilities. No matter where an organization is in the Deployment and Management process there are support tools that you can leverage.
Microsoft Office has a plethora of training and support mechanisms available to the user in a wide array of formats. But one of the key questions IT decision makers must ask from a long term perspective is who ultimately is responsible for the software and is it here to stay. It is easy from the Office perspective; Microsoft has been in the business for a long time and has made a substantial investment in supporting the growth of the suite. With OpenOffice.org it is not as clear cut, it was primarily supported by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) with community support and other major corporate contributors like Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google. Where will it end up in the long term? Not many people will venture a guess there.
The next big question is support, with Microsoft Office 24 hour-7 days a week and phone support is available. With OpenOffice.org you are reliant on your IT staff or third party vendors if you have issues or if you want to submit an enhancement or a bug to the OpenOffice.org project you can submit one to their QA /issue tracking database with little guarantee on a SLA (see appendix A.3 for summary process).
Lastly, there are the questions on documentation. Who owns it? How is it governed? How do you know you are getting the most up to date information? Microsoft Office has the structures in place to support their documentation efforts. They own the documentation; they are responsible for the employees creating the documentation. OpenOffice.org has free community support and a documentation project page, much of the documentation is created by noble volunteers. Searching for relevant and up to date deployment or support documentation can be more disjointed and cumbersome than it needs to be.
Process Office 2010 OpenOffice.org 3.1
Training & Support All documentation is owned and developed by Microsoft Office employees
Templates and forms are created and maintained by Microsoft Office
24/7 and phone support are available
Document ownership is on an individual level. As it is based on volunteers it is difficult to tell level of ownership, governance, and expertise of documents
Majority of templates are updated and published by the community
Training and Support tools
Tools and Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
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Tools and Resources Microsoft Tools and Resources
Description OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
OpenOffice.org Tools and Resources
Microsoft Desktop Deployment Planning Services (DDPS)
Offers customers 1 to 15 days of deployment planning services, based on how level of Microsoft Software Assurance purchased
OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org has training, technical support documentation, Wiki/community support forums, and links to third party support See additional training and support resources in appendix A.2 for more detail
Office Resource Kit
Offers guidance for Application Managers in the deployment and management of Office
N/A
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Issue and Bug Support Summary
Microsoft Office OpenOffice.org
Organization has Premier Support
Contact Technical Account Manager
(TAM)
Determine Priority of Issue
Encounter Issue during deployment
Review issues on FAQ’s & community support forums for
resolution
Issue resolved
Find resolution?
Determine Level of Support
YesIs Issue a Sev 1 or Sev A Issue?
Incident Support available 24/7
Yes
Developer fixes issue
Issue is tested
Patch is issued to customer
No
Encounter Issue during deployment
Review or submit issue to community support forums for
resolutionIs your
organization a member of the
committee?
Submit bug for verification
Bug is entered into but tracking
database
No
Yes
Committee verifies issue and steps to
recreate
Bug Is assigned to developer
Developer works issue in child workspace
Developer fixes issue
Issue is tested and added into the
Master workspace
Register or log in
Check if issue has already been
reported
Is issue a bug or enhancement?
Code is added to next build
Issue resolved
Submit request for
enhancement
Find resolution?
No
Yes
With Microsoft Office you can depend on Microsoft technical support resources to develop a resolution and depending on your level of support you can get phone or 24/7 or onsite support to help you resolve the issue. OpenOffice.org has a loosely structured format that will require you to submit your issue with little to no information on a resolution SLA. The issue can be pushed to the bottom of the development list if there are higher priorities. If that timing doesn’t work for you there are pa id third party support options available.
Impacts
Microsoft Office: With Microsoft Office you know what to expect in terms of support and they are laid out in a manner that you
can predict a course of action if you can encounter an issue. If you have a high priority issue you can get phone support or off hours support to get technical resources involved to fix it. Now that said higher support levels do have fees associated with them, but if you have a business that is dependent on the software to move your organization forward it can be a small price to pay to reduce downtime risks. On the training front Microsoft Office has some great tools and resources available please see Appendix A.1 for details. There is training available across the application deployment lifecycle as well as in-depth application training produced and maintained by Microsoft. With Microsoft Office the end of life support is well documented on its support website (Microsoft, 2009) this helps IT organizations determine upgrade timeframes and what types of support is available for the product.
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OpenOffice.org: According to Gartner, "Software acquisition costs may only be the "tip of the iceberg" compared with migration and learning costs." (Gartner, July 2002). Risks to migration and training costs can drastically impact the success of your deployment. The costs associated with these can erode any potential savings and you can end up with a piece of software that your users need a lot of additional training to support their needs. This is a pretty large risk especially with some analysts questioning the long term support of the software (“A third outcome might be that Oracle abandons Star Office, or lets it die a slow death. It will be an uphill battle to displace Microsoft Office with such a fragmented group ofOpenOffice.org alternatives, and it may prove a battle not worth fighting for Oracle given Sun’s host of other assets" (ZD Net, 2009)). Another large impact is purely the ability to find support documentation. In our research we found the majority of our support for OpenOffice.org out on the web and found that the support documentation was not well organized or governed. “Most businesses don’t have a wealth of knowledge around OpenOffice.org products. End user’s end up being reliant on blogs and online support with little to no governance or support from vendor” (Leiter, 2010). So, if you are planning on instituting OpenOffice.org and you were previously an Microsoft Office Shop you will be running the risk that your users will end up spending a great deal of time researching information on the internet on how to do things with the productivity suite and not just doing them as they were accustomed to. The majority of the training posted on the OpenOffice.org website is built and maintained by external vendors which is not governed internally and can have an effect on a number of fronts (up to date info, timeliness, one source to contact, etc).End of life support for version 2.x was 15 months after version 3.x was made available and documentation regarding the current version 3.x was not available on the website. (OpenOffice.org, 2009). Microsoft publishes its support lifecycle; with OpenOffice.org it is more open to interpretation.
Potential training & support impacts:
Increased effort and resource hours in the Training and Support process
Increased time involved in resolving issues
Increased push back on user adoption
Decreased satisfaction with an unfamiliar product
Risk of accessing outdated or ungoverned information
Lack of training resources
Increased downtime if you have an issue requiring support
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Overall Comparison
Microsoft Office has a mature approach for addressing the Application Deployment and Management process. It knows that each organization will have a different path through the process and provides the tools technologies and resources to support those unique approaches. It addresses each step in the process to provide a reliable experience that will produce the expected results and reduce risk. With OpenOffice.org the process for deployment is addressed in terms of deployment and updates and not from the entire application lifecycle perspective. The result is that support is concentrated in only a few areas giving the enterprise user fewer support options and increasing their need to support themselves or depend on third party resources. These options increase the risk that your organization will have a varied result from the planned approach. Each organization has different levels of IT and resource skill set maturity to this end Microsoft has tailored their deployment tools, technologies and support mechanisms to allow users to choose the help they need. These tools will ease the transition burden of the enterprise, decreasing their costs, improving performance and decreasing the likelihood of potential impacts. OpenOffice.org has some support for different levels of IT maturity, but it is up to you to find the support you need. We have found OpenOffice.org notoriously difficult to find the right information. It increases the time necessary to get to the documentation you need and you don’t necessarily get the word from the company or person that designed the software you may just get an opinion or advise from another user. The overall lack of tools increases the need for more complex skill sets, increasing the time and focus by your IT organization to get software deployed, and an increased burden on end-users to ensure compatibility. Microsoft Office offers a number of options to deploy and manage their software. With proper planning and work the options and support resources provided can greatly strengthen your deployment approach and reduce your organizations risk profile with the platform. If your organization is currently a Microsoft shop it can be deployed and managed with comparable resources and ski lls as well as assist in increasing overall IT maturity with the numerous technologies provided. If you are planning on switching to OpenOffice.org you will have an impact on resources, skills will have to be developed or procured. Your organization will need to plan for the known issues and add in contingencies for unknown issues or hurdles. Having mitigation plans and a good grasp on the capabilities of your IT shop and end users can help ease those burdens. The deployment process for OpenOffice.org can be tweaked to fit a number of deployment scenarios, but OpenOffice.org does not make the deployment process any simpler for enterprise users. Documentation is hard to find and mostly points to community advice and paid third party support. The conversion impacts to enterprise productivity and the risk to years of pre-established files and applications can quickly erode cost savings and increase the likelihood that end users will have to reformat entire document libraries. These are all indicators that tell why it is important to remember that freely distributed does not mean that it is without costs or risks as they can pile up and quickly remove any potential gain. The impact of a compromised approach can vary, but regardless of what the impact is the fallout can be around for a long time. It can erode support and affect employee morale. Every organization is different and as such there will be nuances to the approach and what will impact each. The best advice is to plan appropriately and know the risks, have a mitigation plan and act to lessen any impact. Here is a summary of potential impacts and risks when an approach goes wrong:
Increased time planning deployments
Increased effort mitigating file and application issues
Increased security risk
Decreased ability to configure and customize
Increased re-work in re formatting
Increased time spent updating and monitoring software
Increased risk clients will receive errant files
Increased time searching for training and support resources
Increased third party vendor costs
Increased time and effort solving production issues
Conclusion
In conclusion the desire to change productivity platforms should not be taken lightly; the risks to your organization and the potential costs need to have an appropriate level of research and due diligence associated with this type of undertaking. If not, the consequences can be ongoing and painful. As always careful planning and risk mitigation tactics can help get your organization where they need to be, but preparation for the deployment and management of new software can make or break your budget. Microsoft Office helps prepare organizations very well; it helps them recognize the need for change, plan and institute changes, as well as make manageability easier in the long term. This is the type of support you should expect from
20
productivity software, OpenOffice.org does not have the same level of tools or resources at your disposal to make life easier and reduce long term risk. With OpenOffice.org it seems like their focus is on putting together a similar product and not on helping their customers through the deployment and management process. Don’t mistake the ability to do something for the involved effort, just because there is a technical capability to deploy OpenOffice.org does not mean that your organization has the skill, end user demand or that you want your IT organizations spending their resources on software that makes things harder than they should be.
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About Hitachi Consulting
As Hitachi, Ltd.'s (NYSE: HIT) global consulting company, with operations in the US, Europe and Asia, Hitachi Consulting is a recognized leader in delivering proven business and IT solutions to Global 2000 companies across many industries. We leverage decades of business process, vertical industry, and leading-edge technology experience to understand each company's unique business needs. From business strategy development through application deployment, our consultants are committed to helping clients quickly realize measurable business value and achieve sustainable ROI. Hitachi Consulting's client base includes nearly 35 percent of the Fortune 100 and 25 percent of the Global 100 as well as many leading mid-market companies. We offer a client-focused, collaborative approach and transfer knowledge throughout each engagement. For more information, call 1.877.664.0010 or visit www.hitachiconsulting.com.
Inspiring your next success! ®
About Hitachi, LTD
Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.
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Appendix
Appendix: A.1: Additional Microsoft Training and Support Resources
Resource Type Resource Name Description
Online documentation
Microsoft Office Online
Find information about how to plan a successful upgrade from a previous release.
Microsoft Office System Web site
Learn more about Microsoft Office Migration Management Technologies.
Microsoft Office Resource Kit
Access complete, step-by-step guidance for deploying Microsoft Office system.
Microsoft TechNet Deployment Center
A directory of Desktop Deployment Partners, organized by their area of expertise.
Microsoft Customer Evidence Web site
Access Microsoft Office system best practices, case studies, references, and other helpful insights.
System Requirements
Complete system requirements for the Office Platform
Online Training Resources
The Enterprise Learning Framework (ELF)
Is an online training tool that helps enterprises develop training and communication plan for employees during deployment.
Office Online Office Online includes pertinent information on training, FAQ’s, templates, webcasts, clipart, or other items, the Office Online site is the main page into a number of resources for you. The site is not just information the basic Office Suite, but information on every Microsoft Office product, including OneNote, InfoPath, and SharePoint Designer (formerly Groove).
Getting Started Tab – Welcome Center
The Welcome center runs at startup and can be found in your Control Panel, it has options like “Windows Basics: Learn How to:” and “What’s new in Windows Vista Enterprise”, etc.
Office Online Getting Started Page
The getting started page contains many helpful resources to help customers ramp up on the new release.
Get Quick Office Tips
Get the latest tips and tricks for the new Microsoft Office system in this resource library, including productivity content (videos, webcasts, podcast and more). Little known tricks to help increase your efficiency and productivity.
Tips and Tricks by Product
The Tips and Tricks by Product for quick reference to all the offerings that have been designed to help you simplify everyday tasks. Resources range from On-demand webcasts, E-learning, Mini-webcasts, Quick Reference guides and Tip sheets.
26
2003-2007 Command Reference Guides
Looking for a way to do things in a previous version of Office? Then consider using the 2003-2007 Command Reference Guides. You can perform the steps in a simulation of the previous version, and an interactive guide will show you, in the new release, where the commands are, along with the steps you need to do.
End-user Ready Resource CDs
2007 Office Tips & Tricks in Action:
The 2007 Microsoft Office System Tips & Tricks in Action CD is an insider’s guide to unlocking the power of Office. It includes system demonstrations, product guides, training and certification opportunities, and downloadable trial and add-in software.
2007 Office Tips & Tricks for Power Users:
The 2007 Microsoft Office System Tips & Tricks for Power Users CD offers a video discussing what is new with Office, as well as Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, a key feature of Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
Running Start CD: A tool to help IT professionals obtain the technical resources they need to maintain and improve how Microsoft Office system is used in their company.
Webcasts and Videos
2007 On-demand Webcasts
On-demand webcasts that are quick training seminars to show you the latest features in the current Office release.
Live Webcasts Live Webcasts are scheduled regularly offering continuous learning and exploration into various Office 2007 course level presentations.
Tips and Tricks Onsite Program
FREE onsite education covering the new features and capabilities of Microsoft Office 2007. The presenters will show how your team can better collaborate and share data through Microsoft’s Office applications.
Other Resources
The 2007 Microsoft Office System - Learning Portal
The Learning Portal is the main doorway into many E-Learning, E-Books, and classroom training resources, which will provide you help in learning about the new interface, functionality and features of the 2007 Office System.
Office system Tips & Tricks Windows Vista sidebar gadget
This convenient tool delivers a new Office system productivity via a sidebar gadget.
27
Appendix A.2: Additional OpenOffice.org Training and Support Resources Resource Type Resource Name Description
Free Community Support:
OpenOffice.org Community Forum
main forum for users
Issue tracker (bug reporting lookup)
Public issue search
Documentation project Templates, help guides, how to's
Users Mail list Community Support mail list (subscribe)
General OpenOffice.org mail lists
Subscription and archives for key list
Tutorials for OpenOffice.org
Assistance for anyone learning or teaching
In Pictures Pictorial tutorials for OpenOffice.org
User Help: Frequently asked questions
FAQ's, information, knowledge base
The (unofficial) Open Office Forum
Discussion for "all things OpenOffice.org”
OpenOfficeSchool.org Free lessons in Calc tool
StarOffice.org Support from volunteers familiar with Star Office
edafe.org How -to's, links to documentation
8daysaweek General Help for OpenOffice.org
LearnOpenOffice.org Web-based training and streaming tutorials
Commercial: OpenOffice.org Consultants directory
List of Consultants offering a variety of services including training and support
Sun Microsystems, Inc. Professional support for enterprises including bug fixes and enhancements
Community: OooExtras templates, samples, and macros
OpenOffice.org Wiki Supports development and other contributions
Books List of books available
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Appendix A.3: OpenOffice.org Updates
Here is an example of updating OpenOffice.org. This instance is updating version 3.1.1. The update date was 3/30/2010, so version 3.2 is available on the website.
Selected the help menu and then selected check for updates.
The software returned a user message that “checking for an update failed”.
29
Here is a screenshot from 3/30/2010 showing that version 3.2 is available.
Here is the help file for the update checker. The user will need to have Write permissions to the installation directory. If you have a managed environment more than likely you users will not have access.
There is a fairly nondescript icon in the top right of the application which shows that a new update is available.
30
After selecting the update icon, I did another attempt to see if the check for updates menu option would work, but had the same results.
If you select the icon at the top left it gives the following message.
31
32
33
It seemingly installs Java 6.18 even though I already had version 6.19 of the Java JRE. I checked after the update and my Java version was still 6.19.
34
Checked for an update after installing 3.2 and received the same message.
Here are some links describing the same issue: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/48/computer-technical-help/open-office-update-failed-135699/ http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19596 http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=72385
