White Paper Managing & Deploying Desktop Productivity Platforms
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White Paper Managing & Deploying Desktop Productivity Platforms Comparing Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org Sponsored by: A Knowledge-Driven Consulting® White Paper 1 © 2010 Hitachi Consulting Corporation Executive Summary The complexity and cost of deploying and managing productivity software has unintended and far reaching consequences and as such, this paper will discuss the reality of potential deployment and management impacts and compare the differences in Microsoft Office 2010 and OpenOffice.org. Hidden costs and ongoing maintenance of the software is often not considered in the procurement process and in turn become an application managers’ long term burden, this paper provides insight and guidance into this notoriously cloudy area. The ability to configure and deploy applications on an enterprise basis has changed drastically to support the multiple applications and the complex software configurations your end users demand. IT professionals should expect the ability to support these capabilities and not be locked in to an application administration process that is more difficult than it needs to be. The ability to configure and install software to desktops accurately and efficiently is the key to enabling the productivity and security of your organization. This document will help you tell what to expect from the process of deploying and managing productivity software. In today’s competitive business climate, decision makers are looking to make qualified assessments regarding desktop productivity platforms. A large part of that assessment is how to deploy the software and what it will take to manage it in the long term. Deployment and manageability of productivity software like Microsoft Office 2010 or OpenOffice.org at an enterprise level is often seen as a straightforward endeavor, but there can be pitfalls and as such a deeper look at what meets your needs is warranted. Too often application managers are caught by unforeseen consequences of their software purchasing decisions. You should consider the process for deploying and managing software, the tools and skills needed to support employee productivity and business insight, and finally the risks and hidden costs that you may encounter in order to make an informed and viable decision. Microsoft Office has long been the front-runner in productivity, delivering innovations that have changed the way we work today. OpenOffice.org has been examined frequently due to its relatively low barrier to entry, and free to low cost license fees attract attention when costs are considered. However, risks and hidden costs are not clear and often outweigh potential benefits. This document tells the real story at an enterprise level looking at productivity platforms and their inherent risks and benefits. We have found with OpenOffice.org the documentation, tools and technologies are not as robust across the application deployment lifecycle and that deployments with OpenOffice.org cannot be configured, deployed or managed in a fashion that is expected in today’s environment. OpenOffice.org does not provide for critical capabilities to help improve efficiencies of IT departments including the ability to incrementally update desktops, to the quality of documentation for non-standard deployments, or tools to help migrate customizations and many more. It also exerts additional pressures on your staff in large deployments from adding additional recommended software (Java JRE) to give full functionality, requiring administrative privileges to update or install the software in a managed environment or by lacking the ability to monitor and manage machines for proper updates. These limitations can expose your organization to increased risks and costs. The impacts with using OpenOffice.org range from a decrease in support across the planning and preparation phase to more manual and complex configuration process to fewer deployment strategies to a less predictable update cycle and support that is hard to track down. To display the strengths and limitations across the lifecycle we have compiled the following application experience comparison to assist decision makers in comparing the features, gaps and risks that each piece of software provides. 2 Application Experience Comparison: Here are the results of our assessment in comparing Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org across the application development lifecycle. It maps common considerations organizations may have across the lifecycle to our comparison of the two productivity platforms. Training & Planning Prepartaion Configuration Deployment Updates support Application Application Application Application Application Management and Management Role CIO and VP of IT Management Management Management users and users • Examining IT costs and • Detailed • Preparing the • Run Set up • Ongoing application • Support budgeting environmental infrastructure/plan based on management and application issues • Building the business case assessment ning network migration security and bugs for change • Migration install point methods • Requests for • Provide • Impact statement planning • Customizing the • Migrate files additional documentation • Analyzing environment • Compatibility and software setup • Remediate file functionality • Consume (Hardware and Software) remediation • Customize and application information for compatibility planning software setup issues • Train end-users on • Approvals and • Application and • Configuring user new functionality Considerations procurement file compatibility and computer checking settings The combination of tools and Significant The level of Enhanced Office has tools and Microsoft office resources focus on making investment in configuration and flexibility to resources available support and enterprise application planning tailoring software customization allows deploy the that allows the training resources more successful. to specific needs you to do what software and enterprise to make the provide the peace • Microsoft Office provides of your makes sense from a tools to software more secure of mind that you business case tools and environment and financial and increase and tailored to user are receiving the assistance to help applications. environmental preparedness groups. right information. organizations determine • Office perspective. by identifying • Ability to • Microsoft financial and non-financial Environment • Microsoft Office issues. automatically TechNet impacts Assessment has the following • Microsoft update software Website • The Migration Assessment Tools configuration Office has • Ability to change • 24/7 and and Planning (MAP) Toolkit • Office options available: guidance for user configurations telephone performs a detailed Migration *Network Share multiple (post deployment) support analysis of hardware and Planning *Group Policy deployment • Ability to available device compatibility for Manager start up scripts strategies. Quarantine non- • Documentation migration. • Office Code *Managed • Microsoft updated machines ownership and Microsoft Office 2010 Microsoft compatibility deployment provides • Ability to manage governance checker *Application tools to users language • Compatibility Virtualization assist with packs Assessment and *Presentation testing Remediation Virtualization remediating guides issues. Easy to download the Organizations are Customization The OpenOffice.org has the The training software, but planning for on the hook for and organization is ability to update its documentation is large deployments does their own configuration is exposed to software but the disjointed and hard to not have a focus. planning instead possible with more risk and process can interfere tell what is applicable • OpenOffice.org.org of support from a increased risk to effort in file and with end user • Offline help provides system trusted partner. costs and time application extensions. • Users manual requirements and user • Documentation spent in technical inventories • Manual updates • Community based manual that is focused set-up. conversion. • Not able to tips and guidance • Planning support can be from a single • Third party • Third party quarantine out of found on community- user support and support and date machines based web pages and perspective add-on’s to add-on’s to OpenOffice.org 3.x blogs. instead of from assist with assist with the enterprise configuration. enterprise perspective. deployments 3 Table of Contents Executive Summary ________________________________________________ 2 Introduction _______________________________________________________ 5 Managing Desktop Applications ______________________________________ 5 Comparing Approaches _____________________________________________ 5 Planning _____________________________________________________________________________________ 5 Preparation __________________________________________________________________________________ 7 Configuration ________________________________________________________________________________ 8 Deployment _________________________________________________________________________________ 11 Updates ____________________________________________________________________________________ 13 Training & Support __________________________________________________________________________ 15 Overall Comparison _______________________________________________ 19 Conclusion ______________________________________________________ 19 Bibliography _____________________________________________________ 22 Appendix ________________________________________________________