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• October 25, 2002 •
This week, Microsoft announced the first beta release of its next version of Microsoft® Office, code-named "Office 11", which is expected to ship in mid-2003. There won't be many surprises in Office 11 as far as most people are concerned though. The mayor change seems to be to be the extensive support for XML (an open standard) as a native data format, a move which will let Office be more interoperable with other systems.
"The key word to describe 'Office 11' is 'connected,'" said Joe Eschbach, vice president of the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft. "It's about connecting people with all the disparate sources of information in their work environment, with the processes necessary to complete their jobs, and with the other people they rely on to complete projects and make decisions. In short, it's about making them more productive by removing unnecessary barriers to success."
E-mail has emerged as the primary conduit for communication in many businesses, and managing the ever-increasing flow of information can be overwhelming yet critical to an information worker's success. With Office 11, the Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client has undergone improvements to help people more effectively manage the large amount of information that crosses their desktops and to enhance the way they read, prioritize, file and track e-mail. Because information workers aren't always working online or from the office, Outlook includes an improved mobile e-mail experience that is more consistent across the range of today's networks and data connections. By introducing a new cached e-mail system and intelligent connection settings, Outlook allows mobile workers to get to their e-mail more quickly and transfer between data connections with little or no interruption.
Microsoft Office has seen a slowdown in sales over the recent years, mainly because of its high price, and lack of new exiting features, as well as increased competition from StarOffice, Corel WordPerfect and OpenOffice.
