Clothing Manufacturer Sheds OpenOffice.org for Enhanced Security, Increased Productivity

Ciar started out as a family-run business in 1979, making mechanical and electronic parts for the furniture industry. Over time, it began to design its own massage systems and patented several applications, ultimately providing its expertise to furniture manufacturers in the region as well as the beauty, health, and fitness industries. As Ciar’s size and revenue grew, Ciar discovered that the “free” OpenOffice.org not only failed to provide for its IT needs, but also resulted in huge support costs.

The Pittsford School District in New York State is one of the highest achieving school districts in the United States, and its commitment to student achievement begins at the elementary-school level. But in its elementary schools, disparate IT environments had become too inefficient to effectively enhance instruction or support the curriculum. Pittsford wanted to deploy a standardized, easy-to-use-and-manage solution that would help it to enhance productivity and learning for elementary students. The district initiated a successful pilot program to provide a computer cart with 30 portable computers running Microsoft® Office Professional 2007 for fifth graders at one elementary school, incorporating technology into daily learning, enhancing student achievement, and improving educational and administrative efficiency.

"Yantarny Poligrim's" moved to Microsoft Office 2007 for convenience and the increased work effectiveness of its staff. Integration of Office 2007 with Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 and Microsoft SharePoint Services has created a wealth of new possibilities, such as a common contacts database and the creation of a data analysis system.

In response to deepening budget challenges, Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) sought to reduce IT related expenses. OCPS conducted a study to compare the total cost of ownership (TCO) of different productivity suite software, in particular 2007 Microsoft® Office system and open source software (OSS) alternatives like StarOffice 9 and OpenOffice 3.1. The study found that while OCPS could save a great deal in upfront software license costs by migrating to OSS, the initial savings were offset by vendor support and IT labor costs associated with deploying, supporting, and maintaining the OSS. According to the study, these costs would contribute to a nearly 30% increase in direct costs for an OSS alternative over Microsoft Office. When educator and administrator downtime and productivity costs are considered, the gap between 2007 Office system and OSS widens further.

Based in Indonesia, Astra International is a holding company of one of the largest conglomerates in the country. The company includes six core businesses: Four and two wheelers automobiles divisions including its components, Financial Services, Heavy Equipment, Mining & Energy, Agribusiness, Information Technology, and Infrastructure & Logistic Value Chain. After several years of supporting a mixed environment in which employees used either OpenOffice.org or Microsoft® Office, Astra decided to standardize and fully migrate all desktop information workers to Microsoft Office Standard 2007, a Microsoft Office suite. Astra expects this migration to help reduce IT support, training, and development costs. More importantly, Astra anticipates an increase in employee productivity by empowering people to collaborate and make better-informed business decisions.

Started as a Mitsubishi dealer in the eastern part of Indonesia in 1978, Bosowa has grown into a major conglomerate in the region. In 2006, the company became a holding group and consolidated its five business groups. There was no standard platform while there were around 100 branch offices all over in Indonesia. Communication among these points was essential, but it was often non-unjustifiably expensive. It tried Open Source solutions, but found them inadequate for their requirements. Bosowa then looked for a solution to overcome its communication challenges. Having considered all available options, the company then decided to standardize on Microsoft® platform and adopt Microsoft Unified Communications® suite.

Russian telecommunications company, Sitel, has switched from OpenOffice.org to Microsoft Office 2007 to avoid lost work hours, decrease costs connected to the upgrade of desktop and server hardware, and to ensure compatibility with other organizations.

Constant difficulties in the circulation of documents caused the firm to attempt to configure the OpenOffice.org application package in order to obtain acceptable results. Although there were many trials, none were satisfactory. The company decided to solve this problem, guaranteeing 100 percent conformity of software in the firm and its branches. Very good daily user experience of Microsoft Office 2003 and the company's current servers, it was decided to purchase software from the Microsoft Office System 2007 family.

OJSC Donetsky Excavator produces construction machinery for the Eastern European market. Until recently, employees had to convert documents before sharing them with people outside the organisation, which was complicated and time consuming. In 2008, the company deployed a solution based on Microsoft® Office Standard 2007. Now, employees can easily share documents, and the IT team is 27 per cent more productive.