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Office 2007: Finish What You Started, Pt. 1

February 3, 2010 By

Perhaps this scenario describes your desktop software situation: Half of your end users 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 listened to endless grumbling about their frustration with Office 2003-incompatible files created by colleagues.

Part one of a four-post Office 2007 migration series.

It needs to be said: Finish what you started.

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 Recession: During the past two years, IT budgets were cut and some employees were let go, leaving Office 2007 deployments incomplete.

Misjudgment: IT leaders were unaware of the amount of work that went into a migration. A dearth of internal resources to handle increasing call volume and demand for training halted phased rollouts.

Choice: IT leaders who weren’t mandated to deploy Office 2007 to the entire company chose to migrate in more of a “drip” fashion. Only those who requested the upgrade received it.

It’s not just user frustration you have to worry about either. Managing a staff that is running two versions causes pain for the company in other ways: compatibility issues, limited return on your Office 2007 investment and a semi-knowledgeable internal help desk.

Below is a sampling of the most common Office 2007 issues for end users. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Finish What You Started, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program Tagged With: , , , ,

The Real Cost of Offshore Outsourcing

January 20, 2010 By

The economic downturn may be lingering here in the United States, but in India, the financial situation is quickly becoming rosy. According to an article published today on MSNBC.com, India-based outsourcers such as Wipro, Infosys and Tata experienced a surge in U.S. contracts during the last quarter and are responding by hiring more workers and lifting salary freezes.

IT will gain a new nickname, the “No-Help Desk.” Employee morale will suffer.

That’s great news for the Indian workforce, but bad for U.S. companies. While the short-term cost savings from offshore outsourcing may appear to make it an attractive solution, here’s what all-in-one outfits like Wipro and others will deliver in the long-term:

  • Poor customer service: The “help desk” becomes a place where, instead of help, your customers — er, employees — get only frustration. That equals longer hold times, increased abandonment rates, and more.
  • Degradation of the help desk reputation: IT will gain a new nickname, the “No-Help Desk.” Employee morale will suffer.
  • Increased shadow and underground support: Instead of waiting on hold for a half-hour or more, your employees will search self-serve help outlets, which are proven time-wasters, or they will ask the office software “expert,” and end up wasting the time of two workers. The lost productivity costs with this one are staggering.

Back in May, I wrote a rant on this subject that deserves repeating: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Outsourcing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

This Week in Tech: On Yo-Yo Dieting and Haute Couture Cell Phones

January 19, 2010 By

1. What Yo-Yo Dieting and the Recession Have in Common

The papers are saying that productivity is on the rise, that the fat officially has been cut from corporate America. Good news, right?

Depends on what you do next, says Gartner Blog Network’s Mark McDonald in a recent post. Productivity gains are “… a mathematical phantom, particularly if people remain on their current course and speed,” he writes.

“It is the equivalent of losing water weight at the start of a diet.”

That current course he’s talking about is the way many companies made it through the recession – by removing the costs (employees) without changing the underlying process or operation.

Says McDonald: “It is the equivalent of losing water weight at the start of a diet.” And, as any yo-yo dieter knows, you will gain that weight back quickly if you don’t change the habits that got you fat in the first place.

Read his post here.

2. What Recession?

Then there’s that whole other realm, the business of haute couture, which seems to be a barometer of nothing really, [Read more...]

Filed Under: This Week in Tech News, Worker Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Three Easy Productivity-Boosters

January 8, 2010 By

It’s a new year. The economy’s rebounding and, according to a recent survey, employee confidence is on the rise. Here are three software tips that will help you to become more productive and ride the momentum.

How to Create an AutoText Entry (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

By David McQueary

Retyping long strings of text over and over can become tedious.

Say you are creating a Word document for your company, and you have to use the firm’s 30-character name countless times throughout. Retyping long strings of text over and over can become tedious. Use AutoText instead; it makes document creation much faster and much less repetitive.

Word 2000, 2002, 2003

  1. Click on the Insert menu and select AutoText.
  2. In AutoText you can create your own entry. Once you enter the company name click the Add button on the right.
  3. Click OK. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Time-Saving Tips, Worker Productivity Tagged With: , , ,
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