LibreOffice is a suite for Some Large Migrations personal productivity for MS Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux, offering six feature-rich applications. ● Copenhagen Hospital System LibreOffice uses the ISO standard Open ● Document Format (ODF), recognized by 25,000 PCs from MS Office to governments and organizations, and LibreOffice Migrating based on true open standards. ● Comunitat Valenciana (Spain) LibreOffice reads and writes Microsoft to LibreOffice proprietary file formats, from the legacy ● 120,000 PCs from MS Office to DOC, XLS and PPT to the latest DOCX, LibreOffice XLSX and PPTX (Office Open XML). for enterprises ● French Government LibreOffice also handles the Hybrid PDF format, a standard PDF file which em- ● 500,000 PCs of 15 Ministeries and public beds an editable ODF document. These from MS Office to LibreOffice files can be opened by LibreOffice as administrations ODF documents, and by other software as plain PDF files. The office suite is a key component LibreOffice provides shortcuts to send of any enterprise workflow, and is documents as e-mail attachments in all available formats: ODF, PDF and MS essential for personal productivity. Office formats, including legacy ones. LibreOffice is a viable replacement LibreOffice installs free fonts, designed for Microsoft Office, and can to be compatible with every operating significantly reduce the Total Cost system and therefore able to further More Information of Ownership of PCs in enterprises increase interoperability. ● www..org and public administrations because LibreOffice Migration Protocol ● blog.documentfoundation.org of the substantially lower migration The protocol is a reference for migra- ● cost (in comparison to the cost of tions, based on best practices from [email protected] the proprietary license). This leaflet some of the most successful projects (such as the city of Munich in Germany, represents gives an overview of the migration Regione Umbria in Italy, and several the LibreOffice global community process, based on some successful enterprises and public administrations European case studies. in Europe). Synopsis of the Migration, step-by-step migration process (there is more in it) ● Communicating the change to be implemented ● Starting the migration process with the help of ● Providing training and support certified ● professionals. Deploying LibreOffice on PCs The deployment of LibreOffice needs to be planned in advance and should be coord- inated with the training schedule, in order to ensure that users will be able to use the software after the first training session. The deployment method can be selected according to the IT infrastructure. LibreOf- fice can be mass deployed on Windows by tweaking the .MSI package, and creating a Lessons from successful migrations The production of the first documents will Group Policy Object (GPO) to distribute the software package. LibreOffice's feature set is more than create a positive perception about the adequate for the everyday needs of the quality of LibreOffice: a smooth process Deploying LibreOffice does not mean era- majority of users inside organizations. In will motivate users to continue and try dicating MS Office from each and every PC. general, the few technical obstacles are more advanced features, while stumbling The goal is to maximize the number of PCs related to very complex documents, or to into an issue will leave a negative feeling. using LibreOffice, and foster the interop- spreadsheets using advanced features, or The biggest problem is resistance to chan- erability with MS Office by identifying the to MS Office macros, which are often ge, which is a side effect of the introduct- areas where the latter tries to perpetuate difficult to migrate for various reasons. ion of a new technology in every large the lock-in. Users should be able to produce docu- organization. This is seen as a burden in It will be necessary to educate all users to ments using LibreOffice right after the trai- addition to everyday work, and has to be rely on the ODF document standard to ex- ning: therefore, it is crucial to complete the tackled with focused communication. change files both internally and externally, set up and the test of the workstations Users have to be persuaded that the new as this is the only way to ensure true inter- before the training begins, as any delay in tool can provide a better and more operability, and replace proprietary fonts the installation of LibreOffice will diminish rewarding user experience. with free fonts to avoid “visual” issues. the effect of the training itself. It is also The "brute force" method – which consists The Document Foundation suggests de- extremely important to offer a reference in installing LibreOffice and eradicating MS ploying LibreOffice in large organizations point for any problem connected to the Office without any warning – is the worst of with the backing of professional support migration, starting from "technology all choices, as it creates a rejection effect by certified people (a list is available on leaders" up to trained support personnel. which kills any hope of success. the website).