Estimates of the Costs of Implementing Office Open XML and Open Document Format in the Central Government August 2006 Estimates of the Costs of Implementing Open XML and Open Document For­ mat in the Central Govern­ ment August 2006 Rambøll Management Olof Palmes Allé 20 DK-8200 Århus N Denmark Phone: 8944 7800 www.ramboll-management.dk Contents 1.Executive summary..................................................................................... 1 2.The report’s background and limitations..................................................... 3 3.Introduction................................................................................................ 4 4.Methodological considerations......................................................................... 6 4.1Definition of terms....................................................................................... 6 4.1.1Open source vs. open standards.................................................................. 6 4.1.2OpenDocument format............................................................................... 6 4.1.3Office Open XML....................................................................................... 6 4.1.4Definition of a government institution in this report........................................ 7 4.2The report’s scenarios.................................................................................. 7 4.3The most important prerequisites and key figures............................................. 8 4.3.1General information about the cost calculations............................................. 8 4.3.2Validity and sensitivity............................................................................... 8 4.3.3Conditions concerning the central government’s employees and IT training....... 9 4.3.4Microsoft Office licenses............................................................................. 9 4.3.5Licenses for OpenOffice.org...................................................................... 11 4.3.6Time frame............................................................................................. 11 4.4The individual cost elements................................................................... 11 5.Scenario 1 – The use of Office Open XML format (in Microsoft Office).................. 15 5.1Technological consequences........................................................................ 15 5.1.1Conversion costs..................................................................................... 15 5.1.2Compatibility with other software or system integration................................ 15 5.1.3Networks and hardware............................................................................ 15 5.2License terms and conditions....................................................................... 16 5.2.1Standard license terms and conditions........................................................ 16 5.2.2Software costs........................................................................................ 16 5.3Organizational consequences....................................................................... 17 5.3.1Users..................................................................................................... 17 5.3.2Software support..................................................................................... 17 5.4Scenario costs......................................................................................... 18 6.Scenario 2 – The use of OpenDocument format (in OpenOffice.org).....................20 6.1Technological consequences........................................................................ 20 6.1.1Conversion costs..................................................................................... 20 6.1.2Compatibility with software/integration....................................................... 20 6.1.3Networks and hardware............................................................................ 21 6.2License terms and conditions....................................................................... 21 6.2.1The standard’s license terms and conditions................................................ 21 6.3Organizational consequences....................................................................... 21 6.3.1Users..................................................................................................... 21 6.3.2Software support..................................................................................... 22 6.4Scenario costs......................................................................................... 22 I Estimates of the Costs of Implementing Office Open XML and Open Document Format in the Central Government 7.Scenario 3 – The use of ODF plug-ins in Microsoft Office.................................... 24 7.1Technological consequences........................................................................ 24 7.1.1Conversion costs..................................................................................... 24 7.1.2Compatibility with software and integration................................................. 24 7.1.3Network and hardware............................................................................. 25 7.2License terms and conditions....................................................................... 25 7.2.1The terms and conditions of the standard................................................... 25 7.2.2Software license terms and conditions........................................................ 25 7.3Organizational consequences....................................................................... 25 7.3.1Users..................................................................................................... 25 7.3.2Software support..................................................................................... 25 7.4Scenario costs......................................................................................... 25 8.Proposals for further action.......................................................................27 9.Appendix 1: Prerequisites and key figures....................................................... 28 II Estimates of the Costs of Implementing Office Open XML and Open Document Format in the Central Government 1. Executive summary In this report, Rambøll Management calculates the financial consequences of the cen­ tral government switching from Microsoft’s current proprietary documentation for­ mats to new, open formats. The formats that are included in the cost calculations are Office Open XML, which was developed by Microsoft but has now been transferred to the standardization organization, ECMA, and Open Document Format (ODF), which was accepted as an official ISO standard in May 2006. Only cost calculations were made; not estimates of the possible financial advantages of the central government switching to an open document format. Therefore, no esti­ mate was made of the possible financial gains derived from realizing a political wish to promote competition in the marketplace through selection of a nonproprietary standard format. In the opinion of Rambøll Management, the results of this report should be supple­ mented with evaluations of the societal and functional advantages and disadvantages if they are to be used as the basis for a recommendation of the choice of a standard format or formats for documentation in the central government. The calculations are based on three main scenarios: 1. Implementation of Office Open XML by using the existing office packages from Microsoft or by a gradual transition to Microsoft Office 2007, in which the new format is the standard format. 2. Implementation of the Open Document format by carrying out a general transition to the open source office package, OpenOffice.org 3. Implementation of the Open Document format in the Microsoft Office pack­ ages. The calculations include both setup costs and operations costs for a period of five years. Various types of cost are used, categorized into three main head­ ings: 1. Technological (primarily including conversion costs) 2. Organizational (including employee training and anticipated waste of time when using a new office package) 3. System-related (including license costs and the cost of developing interfac­ es to other generally used systems in the central government) Note that the calculations and estimates that have been made were based on a num­ ber of prerequisites, which were qualified as much as possible. They will, however, always include a degree of uncertainty. This is the case even for relatively small changes of the prerequisites for the organizational-related costs and could mean sig­ nificant adjustments, increases or decreases, of the level of total costs for a period of five years. This would similarly be the case if Microsoft were to increase or decrease its license fees in connection with launching Office 2007. A reduction of the yearly license ex­ 1 Estimates of the Costs of Implementing Office Open XML and Open Document Format in the Central Government pense of, for example, DKK 100 would result in the savings of millions for the central government as a whole. Based on the prerequisites that Rambøll Management is operating with and the current prices for, for example, Office licenses, the main figures for the five- year period are: 1. A transition to the Office Open XML documentation standard in the existing Microsoft Office versions would, in itself, result in the cost of approxi­ mately