But some tech journalists aren’t sold just yet. Microsoft Office still reigns, they say. Tablets don’t match the PC’s versatility or durability, they add. Here’s a rundown from some of the naysayers. Read and make your own judgment.

He maintains that Microsoft’s biggest competitor isn’t Google Apps, but earlier versions of Office.

What Revolution?

InfoWorld’s Eric Knorr is on fire. In his recent article, “The IT Revolution that Isn’t,” he picks apart the three biggest trends bit by bit.

On the cloud: “[L]ast time I looked, Microsoft Office still had over 80 percent market share. Will there be a rush to the cloud when Office 365 launches later this year? No way: Office 365 puts Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync servers in the cloud, but Office itself is meant to stay on the desktop.”

He maintains that Microsoft’s biggest competitor isn’t Google Apps, but earlier versions of Office.

On tablets: “Some pundits argue the desktop doesn’t matter anymore — and that recent PC sales numbers show a decline year over year, while sales of tablets and smartphones have skyrocketed. But have you ever tried doing heads-down work without a real keyboard? When you come down to it, mobile devices add new capability — they don’t replace much in the way of existing desktop functionality.”

Read Knorr’s piece for yourself here.

Tablet, Schmablet

CIO’s Al Sacco has had enough of all this talk about tablets. For the average worker, who doesn’t use the device for business, he writes, “the sheen… is wearing thin.” Which leaves users with “just another boring old piece of hardware.”

In his June 13 article, “Four Reasons Why You Don’t Really Need a Tablet PC,” he makes his case: tablets aren’t particularly portable; they’re just one more piece of hardware to carry; the device has browser limitations; and most aren’t built to last.

Sacco concedes in his piece that tablets are fun to use and have valuable application in some fields (healthcare, sales), but reiterates his bottom line:

“Though unquestionably fun to use and valuable in some specific situations and environments, tablets are still just a luxury item for most people; nobody really needs them, because they don’t truly offer anything that some form of smartphone/laptop combination doesn’t offer.”

You can read Sacco’s piece here.

Now I’m off to play Angry Birds on my iPad…

When half your knowledge workers are using one version and the rest another, that’s a whole lot of lost functionality — and wasted time.

The recession and Office 2007’s immense learning curve are partly to blame, but, ultimately, it’s you, the IT leader, who must take responsibility for diminished return on investment. There’s still time to finish your migration; here are six reasons why you should:

1. ROI: You purchased X number of licenses and only have migrated half. You do the math: You purchased the upgrade for a reason — to take advantage of new and easier to find productivity features.

2. The dreaded Office 2007 learning curve: As evident in the hundreds of expletive-laced Tweets about Office 2007, the new user interface is a downright shock to many knowledge workers. Where’s the file menu? How do you save a document? What is this Ribbon? If you finish your migration, you will not have to face these questions again when you decide to upgrade to the next version (which also has a Ribbon interface).

3. New features: As stated in Reason No. 1, you purchased the upgrade for a reason — to increase worker productivity from the new and improved features (for example, Excel 2007 includes new formulas such as IFERROR, and more columns and rows).

4. The Ribbon is here to stay: Despite the existence of third-party add-ins that make 2007 look and act like 2003, installing them is counterproductive. The beta version of Office 2010 includes the Ribbon interface, and I suspect future versions will too. Embrace it.

5. Document compatibility: When you save 2007 documents in earlier formats, they lose some functionality. When half your knowledge workers are using one version and the rest another, that’s a whole lot of lost functionality — and wasted time.

6. User frustration: See Reasons 2-5.

Time to finish what you started.♦

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In an e-mail response, a reader pointed out an even greater obstacle, something he called the infuriation factor.

“The reason I don’t call our help desk is because it is outsourced to desks outside the U.S.,” he wrote. “The ‘Help’ can’t speak English adequately enough to understand or communicate effectively. A problem which should only take five or 10 minutes to resolve sometimes takes as long as an hour and a half.”

He has a point, and it’s a biggie, for sure.

“Desktop application support is often treated as an afterthought, or a small piece of a gargantuan, all-in-one outsourcing deal.”

Most of us have had a frustrating help desk experience or two, where we were placed on hold, forced to listen to tinny ’80s Lite rock, only to be “helped” – eventually – by someone whose English was so-so, and who was proficient only in gatekeeping.

I’m not by any means xenophobic, and I’m not offended if an ATM asks if I’d like to bank in Spanish, Hindi or English, but the point of desktop application support – or any support – is to clear up conundrums. That’s hard to accomplish if the people involved cannot communicate with each other. It’s even more difficult if the help desk employs a tiered structure and bounces callers around until they get a technician who can actually help.

The language issue is a symptom of a larger outsourcing problem. That is, that because the need for desktop application support isn’t easily quantifiable, and because it’s difficult to prove return on investment with such services, it’s is often treated as an afterthought, or a small piece of a gargantuan, all-in-one outsourcing deal. This not only sullies the help desk’s image, it also tarnishes the IT department’s reputation overall.

Recent industry publications have suggested that multimillion dollar outsourcing deals are the stuff of history, and that companies have begun opting for nimbler, best-of-breed help desk outsourcers. Still, the challenges remain: how to change the help desk’s reputation, how to prove its value, and how to keep an eye on the budget. (Jen Darr)

Is your IT department all-in-one or best-of-breed? Tell us in comments or send us an e-mail.

MORE INFO IN: 5 Lessons to Learn Before Outsourcing | Hidden Demand | Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Fear of asking “stupid” questions is the culprit for many misunderstandings in life, and it clearly plays a standout role in this case. Inserting footers and page breaks shouldn’t be so hard to figure out, right? For a fresh-faced techie, who has immersed himself in software all of his adult life, yes, asking how to fix footers qualifies as stupid.

But for those who started out in business using a typewriter, electric or manual, inserting a footer meant simply typing it at the bottom. Adding a page break was as easy as pulling the paper out of the machine. They did not concern themselves with section breaks, be they even, odd or next page; nor did they care about field codes to insert current date and time, file name or page numbering style. Heck, they may even have brought in a mariachi band for presentation sound effects. (OK, that’s a stretch.)

Anyone who didn’t come of age with a computer has catching up to do, plus a whole lot of maintenance as their existing skills become antiquated.

So, for many, “How do you make the same footer appear on all but the first two pages?” is not an inane question, especially when considering how much has changed in the past 20-odd years. The Internet and computers have had a profound impact on the 21st century, more so than any other technological advance. Each new development requires new skills and understanding. Computer literacy is no longer a special talent; it’s a necessity.

There’s no argument that all corporate workers need technological skills to do their jobs — not developer-level or expert knowledge, mind you, but practical training and ongoing support. Anyone who didn’t come of age with a computer clearly has catching up to do, not to mention a whole lot of maintenance as their existing skills become antiquated.*

The question for CIOs and other IT leaders is: How will you give your employees those skills?

Will you force them “underground” for software support, to huddle and hatch costly, time-consuming workarounds, or will you encourage them to solve their problems productively with the proper training and support? (Jen Darr)

*Source: Ezziane, Zoheir: Information Technology Literacy: Learning and Teaching.

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Depending on their game plan, IT leaders can come out champions, creating their own Cinderella stories by proving ROI.

The reader said she upgraded to 2007 but asked to switch back to 2003 because her company didn’t provide any training.

She began her comment with a question: “So, how do you propose to deal with user frustration?”

Here’s how I replied:

“I know how immensely frustrating Office 2007 can be without training and support. If it was installed on your work PC, and your company provided no training or assistance, then I suspect your CIO is either clueless or just cheap. Upgrading employees without any sort of assistance is shortsighted.

“For home PC users, that’s another story. The redesign is jarring, to say the least. As one commenter put it: It’s as if Office was an automobile, and the manufacturer put the steering wheel in the trunk and the gas and brake pedals on the ceiling.

“Here’s the thing: Microsoft’s intent was to make the user interface more intuitive. Whether they accomplished that goal is up for debate. However, a look at the Office 2010 beta version reveals that the Ribbon is here to stay, so sticking with 2003 will only lengthen the learning curve.”

In a recent ad campaign, my company framed it in basketball terms:

In the NCAA Men’s Division I basketball world, they have March Madness. Since its 1939 inception, the tournament has built a legacy that includes dynasty teams and dramatic Cinderella stories. History, though, has taught us that for all of the great underdog stories that exist, the top-seeded teams that have a firm strategic game plan and a strong foundation of raw talent and skill win more championships.

In the realm of IT, help desk and end-user services, we face a similar big event, a Windows 7 and Office 2007 migration. Depending on their game plan, IT leaders can come out a champion, creating their own Cinderella story by proving ROI, increasing productivity and demonstrating end-user confidence and early adoption, instead of assumed chaos.

Conversely, IT leaders can opt for no plan at all and fail miserably. With an inadequate team and insufficient game plan, the result is crippled productivity, frustrated end-users (like the commenter above) and damaged help desk service levels.

Click here to see the campaign and to design your own stellar game plan.

MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Case Study | PC Helps Migration Assurance Overview | Contact PC Helps

California officially adopted the use of social media. But it’s hardly a Farmville free-for-all.

On Feb. 26, the state officially adopted the use of social media. But it’s hardly a Farmville free-for-all.

The state issued a policy that sets clear rules for its use, including a limitation to only authorized users who have been trained regarding their roles, responsibilities and security risks. (View a PDF of the policy here.)

The document states: “State agencies are encouraged to use social media technologies to engage their customers and employees. Many state entities, including the Governor, have used these communication channels with great success but as with most technologies, there is a measure of risk that must be addressed and mitigated.”

In addition to the policy, the state issued a five-page “Social Media Standard,” which includes a few interesting clauses (read the full document in PDF form here):

No. 8: “Users shall not utilize tools or techniques to spoof, masquerade, or assume any identity or credentials except for legitimate law enforcement purposes, or for other legitimate State purposes as defined in agency policy.”

No. 9: “Users shall avoid mixing their professional information with their personal information.”

And, No. 10: “Users shall not use their work password on social media web sites.”

Participating agencies must comply with the policy by July 1.

Related reading: “What We’re Reading: If  Harvard Says So Edition” | “Social Media: The Elephant in the Office”

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Monday marked the launch of EnterpriseEfficiency.com, a social community of sorts for CIOs and IT leaders where they can discuss and swap ideas on how to make IT departments more efficient.

For a site that just launched, it’s remarkably robust, and has an impressive lineup of contributors, including veteran tech pub journalists, authors and supergeeks.

Of note is editor-in-chief Fredric Paul’s blog post about the challenges of supporting multiple mobile platforms in the enterprise. (Read the post here, “How Many Smartphone Platforms Do We Really Need?”)

And speaking of efficiency and CIOs,  PC Helps is a sponsor of Windows Intelligence, the largest one-day Microsoft conference in California. The conference is being held on March 29, 2010, in person and online. Brian Bradley, PC Helps’ VP of business development, will be speaking about Office 2010. Visit the Windows Intelligence web site for more information and to register. (Be sure to use Microsoft promo code PCHELPS for a discounted rate.)

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University of Tennessee researcher Kate Vitasek offers an in-depth look at how shortsighted cost-cutting and nine other behaviors can hurt companies in her new book, “Vested Outsourcing,” which was published earlier this month by Palgrave Macmillan.

For her study, Vitasek looked at outsourcing deals and identified the most common mistakes companies make when contracting. Among them: Micromanaging, lack of formal governance, metrics obsession, and, of course, cost-cutting as a quick-fix measure.

Cost-cutting, Vitasek writes, is the easiest to identify. Companies desperate to trim the bottom line take the cheapest offer. The result is a tradeoff in quality, service or both.

For more about the study, visit Vitasek’s blog, which features a wealth of articles. It makes for great snow day reading. And for previous posts published on this blog about the subject, see the following: Wasting Money is Bad for the Bottom Line, When Mistakes add up to Millions, and The Real Cost of Offshore Outsourcing.♦

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Poka-yoke is Japanese for “mistake-proofing.” Think of the “In Case of Fire Break Glass” boxes found in office buildings. Because they include a wee stick with which to break said glass, they would qualify as poka-yoke.

Best of all, your employees will experience minimal downtime and very little lost productivity.

In business, Schrage explains, poka-yoke is the “simplest, cheapest, and surest way to eliminate foreseeable process errors.” He urges managers to perform a poka-yoke audit of their own department.

“What are the persistently simple — and simply persistent — dumb mistakes we make that our technologies can help us catch and destroy?” he asks.

Here’s where I believe IT managers should start: the help desk.

Say your company is planning an Office 2007 migration, and you, as CIO, have decided that because of the current economic climate, assistance isn’t needed. After all, your reliance on internal help desk staff during previous Office upgrades didn’t turn out disastrously.

You can take a number of approaches:

• Train your existing IT staffers on Office 2007, and hire extra workers to handle the migration, which would include extensive training and standard benefits;

• hire temps or rely on your current all-in-one outsourcer to get you through it;

• or, bring in a specialized migration partner.

As you may have heard, Office 2007 is radically different from earlier versions. Even the most experienced users will have trouble performing basic tasks like saving documents.

Which one do you think qualifies as the simplest, the cheapest and surest?

In principle, working with the staff you have and hiring a few more keeps the control in your hands, but doesn’t make sense financially or logistically. You will need to train new employees on the entire Office 2007 suite, pay benefits, and dole out extra expenses for an after-hours support skeleton crew.

Such a significant time and money investment (at about $85 per call) does not make sense when you consider that you have no guarantee the new FTEs and your existing IT staff will be able to cover a full-swing migration while maintaining their regular duties. Plus, your new employees will be generalists, supporting only a dozen or so applications. The average peak hold time for this solution is nine minutes, and the call abandonment rate is 10 percent.

At an average of $96 a call, temps are pricier than full-timers, and don’t even deliver better service (15 percent abandonment rate). A temp solution offers generalist support and an average 15-minute hold time during peak hours. It does not provide training, advanced Office 2007 support, or awareness campaigns.

Choosing a big-box outsourcer seems like a smart option if you already contract with one for other services. At $59 on average per call, this option is cheaper than hiring temps and full-timers. Also, some all-in-ones offer training in conjunction with a migration. The downside: The staff is mostly generalists whose first language is not English. Some big outsourcers employ tiered-model desks as well. When you factor in the 10-minute peak hold time and 15 percent call abandonment rate, this option loses its shine.

The last option, a migration partner, is often dismissed as an unnecessary expense, especially when budgets are sparse. However, if you choose the right outsourcer, you will get domestic Microsoft-certified consultants; support for more than 160 applications, including advanced-level Office 2007; training courses and awareness campaigns; after-hours support; no hold time; a call abandonment rate of .01 percent; and a 91 percent first-call resolution rate. Average cost per solution with this option is $25.

Here’s the poka-yoke: By hiring a migration partner, you will not have to hire extra staff (or fire them once it’s complete); you will not need to train your staff to an expert Office 2007 level; you will not have to pay overtime when call volume balloons during the initial migration phase; and, best of all, your employees will experience minimal downtime and very little lost productivity.♦

Read Schrage’s full article.

Download your free migration readiness kit.

MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Case Study | Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program | Migration Readiness Checklist | Migration Competitive Analysis | Contact PC Helps

According to a leading industry source, more than 50 percent of enterprise-sized IT infrastructures are running mixed Microsoft Office end-user environments. The reasons are many: the recent “econolypse” spurred IT leaders to cut budgets and lay off workers, leaving Office 2007 deployments incomplete; IT management underestimated the amount of work that a migration required, and they reacted by halting phased rollouts; and some CIOs and other IT leaders who were not mandated to deploy the new version to the entire company doled it out in a “drip” fashion.

The result is an enterprise that looks something like this: Half of your employees use Office 2007, and the rest are still running Office 2003. All you’ve heard from the former are “Where’s the file menu?” and “How do I save a document?” From the latter, you’ve likely endured endless grumbling about their frustration with Office 2003-incompatible files created by colleagues.

It’s not just user aggravation you have to worry about either. Running two versions invites compatibility issues, minimizes the return on your Office 2007 investment, and keeps your internal help desk semi-knowledgeable about the software.

We’ve compiled a kit that will show you how to cost-effectively finish your Office 2007 migration while minimizing the end-user and help desk learning curve, increase productivity and more accurately project call volume. You can view it here.

MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Case Study | Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program | Migration Readiness Checklist | Migration Competitive Analysis | Contact PC Helps