Microsoft has put back the general release of the Office
2007 productivity suite to “early 2007” with the result that some
Microsoft volume licence holders may miss out on the upgrade under
their contracts.
Roy Illsley, senior research analyst at Butler Group, said this
could hit some organisations that had taken out Software Assurance
towards the end of 2003 expecting to get the right to deploy an
updated version of Office during the three-year licence. The
postponement would particularly hit organisations planning to use
Office 2007’s new business intelligence, he added, and they might
now start looking at other suppliers to deliver these features.
Microsoft had previously said that Office 2007 would definitely
be ready for all customers from January next year, in tandem with
the new Windows Vista operating system. After previously saying it
expected to finish the code for Office 2007 by this October, the
company now says the code will not be ready “until the end of the
year”. The company cited performance problems for the delay after
studying test versions of the package.
While Microsoft is still working towards a November release of
Windows Vista to large companies with volume licences, it is
unclear whether the Office 2007 delay will scupper this date.
Many companies would like to test both products together before
rolling them out. The delay in Office 2007 may well lead to
Microsoft delaying Vista too – something the company has not ruled
out.