Assem Galal, products manager of Microsoft Egypt, said in Comdex Egypt conference, that introducing the program to the market early enough before its production allows the IT users to benefit from the opportunities it offers.

Office 2000 is very effective in raising the competitiveness of the companies and helping them benefit from the technological advances of the new millennium, he added in the conference meeting attended by more than 800 IT expert. Galal believes this program is one of the most important programs that Microsoft introduces in the Market for the current year.

He explained that raising a company's competitiveness heavily depends on its ability to react and respond quickly to a changing business and market environment. As a result, companies are in need of applications that provide high collaboration between its operating units and facilitate their sharing of information.

Office 2000 increases individuals' and companies' productivity through its programs that can integrate and analyze information while simplifying the users' experience in a way that is effective in raising their efficiency, he said.

"Dell and Microsoft are working together to deliver integrated systems management solutions for our enterprise customers making it easier to centrally manage remote users," Bassem Ghoussainy, systems management consultant, Dell Europe, Middle East. "Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 takes advantage of industry-standard instrumentation on Dell systems under Dell OpenManage portfolio of systems management solutions to help increase systems availability and manageability of Dell PowerEdge servers, OptiPlex desktops, Latitude notebooks and Precision WorkStations."

Galal stressed the fact that the new program helps in decreasing the overall costs of owning PCs, as well as extending communication programs to include Internet networks adaptable for every company and totally supportive of the Arabic language. This set of programs also includes web publishing.

Office 2000 includes a lot of advantages compared to the previous versions like its self installed treatment tool that manages its users to fix any problems resulting from incomplete or damaged files, he added.

For the first time in the history of Microsoft Office, the international version supports the Arabic language, said Galal. Through the Unicode technology that's already established within the program, the user can edit, read and print a document in the Arabic language quite easily on the International version through Arabic operational tools. The Arabic version has the privilege of specific programs that handle Arabic poetry, grammar and that include special Arabic fonts, Arabic user interface and Arabic technical aid.

The program now is passing through the final process of production and packaging and the Arabic version is in the final Beta testing phase, said Galal.

Galal added that those who own a licensed MS Office 97 version have the right to upgrade their systems with the new program for free, until the office is introduced in the market.

Microsoft products manager at APTEC, Salma El Fequi said that the different sales and distribution companies stressed their interest in the program because of its importance to the users. She expects the program to have a great appeal in the market due to its ability in assisting the different companies and organizations in raising their productivity.

Ali Zakarya, Microsoft products manager at ORASCOM, said the company has established early plans for introducing Office 2000 in the market through training the sales and technical support employees on handling the different aspects of the product. Moreover, ORASCOM is already engaged in preparations to meet the expected excessive demand on the program, he added.