Microsoft has confirmed today that the latest version of the Office suite will be delivered to corporate customers on November 30th
“We’ve crossed the development finish line, and the team deserves to celebrate,” said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. “The 2007 Microsoft Office system RTM completes the most significant improvements to the products in more than a decade. It’s rewarding to be able to send this release off to our customers and help them take the next big leap forward in productivity”
It will be very interesting to see the true response from the corporate world. One of the biggest changes in Office 2007 is the user interface. Even seasoned IT professionals that I have spoken with have had trouble navigating the new Office, which begs the question: How will the average user deal with a complete upheaval of the interface?
I remember helping companies make the switch from Office 98 to Office XP, and it took weeks (Sometimes months) to get these users to re-learn, and get back to the same level of productivity. That change was slight. I can’t imagine the support nightmare after a deployment of Office 2007.
I would expect it will take many years before we see widespread adoption of Office 2007.