Microsoft To Cut Office Ownershi p Costs

Company aims for 50% reduction in TCO in next version of popular suite

By Karen M. Carrillo

educing total cost of ownership is at the top of Microsoft's priority list as it prepares the next version of its hot-selling Office suite. Several studies commissioned by Microsoft have been released that demonstrate that Office 97 already cuts deployment time, support, training, and administration costs over previous versions of the suite. But Microsoft has ambitious goals to cut TCO by 50% in its next version.

According to a study released by Giga Information Group, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass., help-desk calls have already been reduced by 22% in businesses currently deploying Office. How will Micro soft reduce that even more?

The first peek at new functions slated to be included in the next version of Office were introduced last month at Microsoft's Platform Strategy briefing in Seattle. Among the enhancements are "self-repairing" applications, which will let users replace missing system files and find files that may have been deleted.

"Any functionality that would help LAN administration of applications will be welcomed," says Keith Whitted, PC network analyst at cardiac pacemaker manufacturer Sulzer Intermedics Inc. in Angleton, Texas. "It's a day-to-day battle."

Other new features will include automatic updates that notify users of upgrades and patches. Using an Office Assistant tool that will launch Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4 Web browser, the updates can be sent to users via push technology.

"For the end user, it's very transparent to update and they need no instruction from IT," says Andrew Dixon, a product manager at Microsoft. For IT managers, that means eliminating the nee d to install software on every desktop, he adds.

Microsoft also plans to improve support for Windows-based terminals and NetPC users who want to use Office. By adding install-on-demand capabilities, users can do a minimal installation of applications and add more functionality as needed.

Microsoft will not say when it plans to release the next version of Office. Office 97 currently has more than 10 million users.

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