Microsoft began distributing a half-million copies of the beta 2 version of the new Microsoft Office System (previously known as Office 2003) to customers and partners worldwide. The Microsoft® Office System is a set of programs, servers and services designed to better connect people with each other and their organizations, information and business processes, to transform information into business impact.
"Today's work force is geographically dispersed, information-hungry and constantly striving to be more effective and efficient," said Joe Eschbach, corporate vice president of the Information Worker Product Marketing Group at Microsoft. "The applications in the Microsoft Office System are central to addressing these problems, and by offering them all together, we are giving customers the opportunity to experience firsthand how deploying the Microsoft Office System can improve communication and collaboration across enterprises -- small and large."
The Microsoft Office System applications available in beta 2 today for evaluation are these:
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Microsoft Office 2003 connects people, information and business processes, making it easier for people to take more effective action and get better results. The core suite includes Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 messaging and collaboration client, Microsoft Office Word 2003 document authoring application, Microsoft Office Excel 2003 spreadsheet and Microsoft Office Access 2003 database.
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Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 tools to develop Web site(s). With professional designing and coding tools, people can design the Web site they want and code more efficiently, using the world's first WYSIWYG XSLT editor and by developing rich Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server solutions.
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Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 streamlines the process of gathering information by allowing users to create and complete dynamic forms and submit them to the XML-enabled systems and business processes that need the information.
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Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 capture notes electronically on a laptop, desktop or Tablet PC and work more naturally to organize and search those notes.
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Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 create professional marketing communications pieces using design tools, improved e-mail support, and Web authoring and posting features.
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Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server "2.0" connects people, teams and knowledge across business processes. SharePoint Portal Server provides a secure enterprise business solution that integrates information from various systems into one solution, through single sign on and enterprise application integration capabilities, and provides flexible deployment and management tools. It facilitates end-to-end collaboration by enabling aggregation, organization and searching for people, teams and information.
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Other Office System Products not included in the beta 2 kit, but fundamental to the Microsoft Office System, are Microsoft Project and Visio®. Microsoft Project consists of Project Standard, the desktop project management program for effectively planning, managing and communicating project information, as well as Microsoft Project Professional and Microsoft Project Server, which work together to provide an enterprise project management solution. Microsoft OfficeVisio 2003 is a diagramming solution that helps business experts and technical professionals understand and communicate complex ideas, processes and systems graphically so they can take more effective action. Both products are on a different development and release cycle and will be available later this summer, after the other Microsoft Office system products are released.
Microsoft Office System products are scheduled for release in mid-2003. Pricing and availability are unavailable at this time.
Companies and information workers interested in trying the Microsoft Office system can learn more on the Microsoft Office Preview Web site.
You can still order the Microsoft Office System Beta 2 Kit 2003 (as long as stocks last) on the Microsoft Web site.
