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Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King
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Is there anyone not targeting Microsoft Office?

By | September 18, 2007, 6:50am PDT

Summary: IBM is reportedly going to offer free software to compete with Microsoft Office, Google launched its PowerPoint wannabe and Yahoo acquires Zimbra in a really nice move that could be a precursor to Yahoo Office. In between those announcements there’s OpenOffice 2.3. On any given day there are updates for those tracking this space from [...]

IBM is reportedly going to offer free software to compete with Microsoft Office, Google launched its PowerPoint wannabe and Yahoo acquires Zimbra in a really nice move that could be a precursor to Yahoo Office.

In between those announcements there’s OpenOffice 2.3. On any given day there are updates for those tracking this space from the likes of Zoho, StarOffice and other usual suspects. IBM is even bringing back retreads to target Office. At least the price (free) is right. The target: The Microsoft Office juggernaut.

Well I’m tired of it. Given that Microsoft Office must be so vulnerable (see Techmeme) I want a piece of the pie.

Without further ado, I introduce DigOffice, a new paradigm in productivity software. It’ll be SAASy, on-demand, comply with all those document formats everyone gripes about. You’ll dig DigOffice so much that you’ll drop Microsoft Office, fire your CIO for being so stupid and embrace an open source, browser-centric productivity reality. Of course, DigOffice will have so much AJAX that you can clean your kitchen sink. And it’ll all work offline.

Here’s the press release that will be going out shortly.

DigOffice launches, new Web 2.0 paradigm emerges; Microsoft Office is roadkill

NEW YORK–DigOffice, a new productivity suite, launched Tuesday. This new suite integrates all technology acronyms easily and will change the way you view productivity software.

DigOffice is designed from the ground up to mimic Microsoft Office (not to mention other Office suites) and allow access through a browser.

“DigOffice will be a paradigm shift of epic proportions. Our goal is to nibble at Microsoft’s revenue stream and create a business for ourselves. From there, we’ll get venture funding and I’ll be able to feed myself,” said DigOffice creator Larry Dignan at a press event held in a jam-packed Manhattan cubicle (capacity: 2).

Simply put, DigOffice is SAAS, open source, compatible with OOXML and ODF and distributed through various consultants looking to charge you fees just so you can rip out Microsoft Office. DigOffice is based on previous productivity suites that have failed to get traction previously.

“DigOffice will work in both enterprise and corporate environments. You’ll fire your CIO after this user experience,” said analyst I. HaveBeenPaidToSayThis.

Any questions can be directed toward Mike Cox. He’s on the site somewhere.

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Topics

Microsoft Office, Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp., DigOffice, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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Dr. Fred
Update victim 20th Sep 2007
Have you noticed that all of the new products are using the Open Document format?
View in thread
0 Votes
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Yes, it sounds like a lot of people smell blood with the OOXML rejection,
DonnieBoy 18th Sep 2007
and the EC decision, and in general more people demanding open formats like ODF and using standards based web browsers. Microsoft's switch to a new office suite and file format, the problems with Vista, and the move to SasS are making MS more vulnerable. People are looking for the dike to break sooner or later. Billy and Stevie have their fingers in all of the big holes, and have amazingly been able to keep the dike almost all intact. But, now over in Europe, they are asking them to take some of their fingers out of some of the holes.
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It's not blood they're smelling...
yyuko@... 18th Sep 2007
Quite frankly, if MS Office was free, there's a good chance there would be less interest in this space.

The reason why companies that DON'T specialize in office productivity suites per se are getting into the game and giving out free or low-cost alternatives is to free up money for their customers.

Take for example, a recent customer of mine who spent $450,000 to relicense their MS Office software. That's $450,000 that could have been spent elsewhere, especially in infrastructure-related products. These vendors see MS Office as an obstacle in getting customers to buy their products, even if it isn't office productivty software. For every IT dollar that's spent elsewhere, that's one less dollar that can be spent on your products.

Think about it. Care to venture a guess how much IT departments as a whole across the U.S. alone spends on MS Office? If just one company spent $450,000, how much is everyone spending total?

These vendors are not trying to get a piece of the pie. They're trying to eliminate the pie altogether so that there's a bigger pie elsewhere.
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That is a very good point, but, companies also like to "cut off the air
DonnieBoy 18th Sep 2007
supply" of competitors. So, any time you can hurt a competitor and not lose any money, go for it. Besides, if you can keep a competitor out of your customers business, YOU will be the one making weekly service calls and selling add-ons. Regular customer contact is EVERYTHING. And, having a lot of seats for office suites, you will figure out ways to monetize that. Remember many of those offering alternatives have very low costs compared to Microsoft.
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Introducing OfficeDoodie X
pmong55 18th Sep 2007
Stuart, FL ??? Introducing OfficeDoodie, a new productivity suite launched Tuesday. It will be just like Microsoft Office, but different. Here is the software included in OfficeDoodie X:

- WordPoo: A vast word processing program that will allow you to write complaint letters to members of congress who still don't have e-mail.

- CleanLoafs: Like spreadsheets? You'll love CleanLoafs. It's just like Excel except it's just a little different in that it doesn't use letters or numbers to identify the columns. Instead, it uses various shades of brown.

- GlassToilet: Create great looking presentations and impress your boss with the 'flush' sound.

- RunnyHangover: Outlook on crack. Currently lacks e-mail support. But who wants to look at e-mail on Monday morning anyway?

- PooPooPro: Database software that saves data and runs queries. Ha! Queries.

- VisualPoo: Chart your 'flow' with VisualPoo. Is it runny? Yes? No If yes, STOP. See doctor.

- TPOYS: 'Toilet Paper On Your Shoe' is like Microsoft Binder. We're not sure what it does, but we'll discontinue it with the next release.

And, you can access all of our software online via HotDoodie.

Everybody loves poop jokes!
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What's a market?
Anton Philidor 18th Sep 2007
Office makes a substantial amount of money for Microsoft. Daily. People and organizations are willing to spend substantial amounts for the software.

The competition described is cheap or free.

So competitors are acknowledging that alternatives to Office are not worth buying, and exist for ideological or PR reasons, or to be a lagniappe tossed in when selling something else.

Office's quality is being endorsed as unapproachable. Microsoft can be proud.
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A lot of MS Office purchase are driven by compatibility fears. MS has been
DonnieBoy 18th Sep 2007
very good at keeping a moving target and they have never documented the .doc/.xls/.ppt formats. But, with the move to standard document formats and SaaS, AND with the rapidly reducing need to actually print documents, the baroque features of MS Office are looking more silly every day.

People smell blood here, and Office Suite prices will be dropping.
0 Votes
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almost chocked in my tea
tombalablomba 18th Sep 2007
Office's quality is being endorsed as unapproachable

You nearly killed me, yes the unsurpassed quality of office. Word which creates people more busy with how it looks instead of what they are writing... (yes I still long for the blue screen of wordperfect and the underwater screen...)

Excel, the perfect companion for decision making and working the numbers till they look right to you....

Powerpoint, which makes me want to slap people the moment I see the fly ins, swirling texts etc.

Outlook, the faithfull companion to email, which always seems to think I need a wordprocessor to answer my emails, which makes calling people faster than finding a message....

Every two to three years a new format which forces you to either ask people which version they're using of just use the oldest available out of the list...

Yep, the best we can get
0 Votes
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Competitors are acting as if...
Anton Philidor 18th Sep 2007
... Office were in fact "the best we can get." After all, if another company made a better product, it would be able to charge a significant amount. Competition would be on the basis of performance and features rather than price.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch."

"You get what you pay for."

The pricing of the competition is self-criticism.
0 Votes
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Or
tombalablomba 18th Sep 2007
they're just heading where it would hurt their competitor the most...

some of ms's 'free products':
- Internet Explorer
- Media Player

yes you're right mediocre offerings and free.....
0 Votes
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Part of the operating system.
Anton Philidor 18th Sep 2007
Internet Explorer and MediaPlayer (or at least the media playing capabilities) are in the operating system. And are part of the reason Microsoft has been able to maintain Windows pricing.

For comparison, a free operating system with few integrated applications would be labeling itself mediocre at best.
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But Anton,
Update victim 20th Sep 2007
When I had OS/2 Warp running on a K6-2/400 with only 64 MB of ram it seemed just as fast as I now have with an Intel Core 2 Duo and 1 GB of ram. It did everything I needed or wanted. It was stable.

My grand daughter is now using the same computer with an upgrade to 320 MB ram and Ubuntu 7.04. It is much slower to start, and start applications, but otherwise seems about the same. The only deficiency, if you consider it that, is the inability to perform well with online games.
0 Votes
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Respectfully I'll disagree...
BubbaJones_ 18th Sep 2007
I wouldn't say MS Office quality is unapproachable in the least. Definitely it's
ubiquitous but, that doesn't make it the best. The reason it's ubiquitous is
because it came pre-installed on PCs. So there you have it.

Remember MS gave away numerous products, or at greatly reduced prices when
compared to other vendors, just to gain market share. MS Office was one, MS
Access is another that comes to mind. Using your example that indicates MS
Access wasn't worth purchasing, it wasn't a good product etc..

What folks are afraid of is change. They're comfortable with Office, in their minds
changing would be difficult. Instead of paying the upgrade fee I've helped many
folks change from MS Office to OpenOffice, they're shocked at how well it
performs and that it's free. They now have more money for other projects and
they're not missing anything with not using MS Office. Oh they still use Outlook.

Word Perfect is better at handling long complicated documents. Back in the day
even AmiPro was better than MS Word. What people want is file format
compatibility but, even there MS falters, previous versions cannot read their own
products. MS changes file formats, for the better perhaps, but their own programs
choke on them. Non Vista office users cannot open the new MS Office DOCX, XLSX
files. Much teeth gnashing is going on now.

I'm not bashing MS nor MS Office. When needed I use MS Office for the Mac
however, it cannot read DOCX files. Apple's Pages reads DOCX XLSX files; hum.

As they receive new DOCX, XLSX files business associates that use Windows MS
Office are quite frustrated. Has MS created a DOCX and XLSX reader for previous
versions of Office? Though I do see third party converters I haven't been able on
the MS site to find a reader their own reader; maybe it is there.
0 Votes
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Office doesn't always come re-installed.
Anton Philidor 18th Sep 2007
The price difference is substantial enough that I believe OEMs make it an option in most/all cases.

I was arguing not that Office is the ultimate productivity suite or even that it's necessarily the best available now, but that competitors who/which make their products free or cheap are apparently indicating that their products are worth less.


You're right that momentum halps Microsoft. Both the comfort of staying with what they know, and the fact that a user ncertain about buying a new upgrade can stay with an older product.

Microsoft's most difficult competitor is, in fact, the company's own older products because of that ease with the older product. Microsoft has to prove newer is better.

Notice that in making its case, the company does not highlight an exceedingly low price. The product is sold as worth an acceptable price far greater than $0.
0 Votes
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I'll disagree with acceptable price...
BubbaJones_ 18th Sep 2007
You're correct it isn't always installed but, it was pre-installed enough that it
became ubiquitous. Also, it was installed at a much lower rate than what we could
acquire it at the store. A terrific business move by MS actually.

Yes to some a low price does mental things about perceived quality. Again MS did
and does lower the price of their products greatly. Going back to that MS Access
example, I purchased it at about $80 when other DBM systems were hundreds of
dollars. A loss leader for MS for sure but, I neither think folks perceived it a worth
less nor worthless. They thought they were getting, as I, a great product for the
cost paid. The same goes with other third party programs, folks need to open
their minds not being afraid of change.

Ah, again you're correct that MS is its own worse competitor. Where's the value in
moving from Office XP or 2000 to Office Vista, at present none that I can see.
Corporate types may want something new to play with all the while then they
know the high probability of incompatibility with their in house formated
documents?Excel, Word, PowerPoint. Two edged sword that many don't want to
take on. Wow we had issues going from one Windows Office version to another?
of course resolved but what a nightmare. Many folks don't again want to go
through that.

Finally, true it is sold as worth an acceptable price far greater than $0, but I
disagree on the use of acceptable price. Assume you own two or more computers
you'd be required to purchase Office for each at a cost of $300ish-$700ish each;
ugh. However, purchasing the student teachers version (speaking on the Mac, may
be the same for Windows) it comes with three licenses so I can put it on three
computers at the cost of about $100 total for Office on three computers. Last year
that's the price I purchased Office at Amazon. So do allow me to disagree with the
Acceptable price on the $300ish-$700ish price.

Again thank you for your input.
0 Votes
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An acceptable price for individuals...
Anton Philidor 18th Sep 2007
... is likely to be lower than the acceptable price for Office.

Microsoft had let a niche market develop because Works did not replace Office at the lowest price levels. Even with Word in Works. To fill the lower cost niche, the company first became tolerant about who was a student for the Student version of Office 2003, and even more tolerant for the most recent Office.

So individuals uncomfortable with paying much more than $100-$150 now have a version of Office for themselves.

The niche is now almost closed to all competitors charging less than $100 per copy.
0 Votes
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"Official" Office 2007 File Converters
PreventRage 18th Sep 2007


If you search (Live or Google, I tried both) for Office 2007 Converter the first hit is the correct download page. It's actually called "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats". Bit of a mouthful, admittedly. It allows Office XP/2003 to seamlessly read and write the new formats.
0 Votes
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Thank you..
BubbaJones_ 18th Sep 2007
PrevenRage,
Here's the link for others to see as well:
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

What I kept looking for was Reader in every fashion I could think of, such as Reader
DOCX etc. etc.. Again, thanks for the heads up it may assist others as well.
0 Votes
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Quality issues?? Or fear of change?
jchickory 20th Sep 2007
I will admit that I am not a 'power user'. But I have used a number of 'productivity packages' to some extent over my years (20+) of computer use. My biggest problem has been relearning the keystrokes when one program has superceded another. Once past the learning curve, I am quite content with OO on my personal machines and don't mind not having to fork over hundreds of dollars for newer versions to upgrade. OO continues to evolve and become more polished. I believe that the quality gap is more perceived than real and may be a smoke screen for those that fear to change and dread learning something new.
0 Votes
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Very Good!
TTGIT Guy 18th Sep 2007
Almost a "Mike Cox".

9.0
0 Votes
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Gotta love the Mike Cox shout out
gtvr 18th Sep 2007
He's more elusive than Lootie, when will we meet the real Mike Cox?
0 Votes
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RE: Is there anyone not targeting Microsoft Office?
IT_Guy_z 18th Sep 2007
I'm not... wink
0 Votes
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Where is the Office killer?
DrFred 18th Sep 2007
Apple makes a good presentation product I heard, Google allows you to do all online, OpenOffice has the ODT format. All these products are good at what they do but aren't a cohesive brand. I want innovation along with my free software.
0 Votes
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Dr. Fred
Update victim 20th Sep 2007
Have you noticed that all of the new products are using the Open Document format?
0 Votes
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Ability.com
d.arbib@... 19th Sep 2007
I have never used Microsoft Office so this discussion does not apply to me whatsoever.

I have used Ability Office and frequent updates and its write, spreadsheets, database, etc have never been difficult to use and easily installed on XP and Vista.
0 Votes
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Blood in the water...even Project has alternative with OpenProj
linuxbeatsms@... 19th Sep 2007
All this software and it is free ! IBM, Google, Sun and Projity are all offering free alternatives to costly, bloated Microsoft Office. Project is $1,000 a copy and is only available on Windows. Why would anyone buy Project when you can get OpenProj for free and it is available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows !!!!! This is great to have IBM/Symphony entering the market as a complement to the others.

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