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Office 2010: Enhanced Business Productivity through Server Integration!

When Microsoft Office products were first introduced, they helped people move beyond the basics of word processing. Now, Microsoft Office offers automated tasks and is now the primary vehicle by which people experience business productivity benefits at work.

The introduction of Microsoft Office 2007 was the first time a solution of client, server, and service products could deliver the functionality that would have previously required a full Business Productivity Infrastructure (BPI) platform. The release of Microsoft Office 2010 on 15 June, has evolved this integration to the next level by providing more flexibility in delivery and new offerings to help businesses save both time and money**:

Microsoft Volume Licensing

The Microsoft Office 2010 suites available through Volume Licensing include:

• Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 offers a complete toolset for both individual and team productivity and connects users to key business processes. New additions to the Office Professional Plus 2010 suite include Microsoft® OneNote®, and Microsoft® SharePoint® Workspace.
• Microsoft Office Standard 2010 provides a comprehensive toolset for individual productivity. It provides the necessary tools to quickly and easily create great-looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and manage e-mail. New additions to the Office Standard 2010 suite include OneNote and Publisher.

Microsoft Volume Licensing

For Microsoft Volume Licensing customers, Office 2010 provides more business value in each product offering plus the new, innovative, capabilities of the Microsoft Office Web Apps* licensed with the Office 2010 Standard and Office 2010 Professional Plus suites, and simplified licensing options. Software Assurance customers benefit from an efficient migration path to Office 2010 and can take advantage of training, deployment planning, and technical support benefits to get the most out of the software.

Office Web Apps in Office 2010

Office Web Apps include Word Web App, Excel® Web App, PowerPoint® Web App, and OneNote Web App. They move Office 2010 beyond the traditional workstation and extend the Office productivity experience to the browser – offering virtually anytime, anywhere access.*

Licensing of Office Web Apps

Office Web Apps are licensed with the Office 2010 suites offered in Volume Licensing Programs. They are not licensed as part of Software Assurance. Since Office is licensed “per device”, Office Web Apps are also licensed per device. A single, “primary user” of an Office 2010 licensed device may access the Office Web Apps from any other device, including those not necessarily licensed for Office. Please note that although Office Web Apps are licensed with Office Professional Plus 2010 and Office Standard 2010, the actual bits for Office Web Apps are installed by a customer's IT department on SharePoint Foundation Server 2010 (currently Windows SharePoint Services) or SharePoint Server 2010. Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is being rebranded SharePoint Foundation Server with the 2010 launch, and will remain a free, online download.

Note also that Office Web Apps are not a replacement for Office 2010, but more like an online companion to Microsoft Office that extends the productivity experience – across the PC, phone, and browser– to allow for document viewing and light editing away from the user's primary device. The most complete solution for office workers remains Office Professional Plus and the Business Productivity server solutions on the back-end.

Enhanced Business Productivity through Server Integration

With Office 2010, the familiar Office interface can be enhanced with related Business Productivity server capabilities to help users connect, communicate, collaborate, and accomplish more. In many cases, Office Professional Plus 2010 is required to initiate a process or apply policies. However, all users are able to participate in the processes, or to consume content, regardless of which suite of the Office 2010 release is being used.

The Office 2010 brochure (click to download) includes a table overview of the features designed to work together between Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft Server technologies.

*An appropriate device, Internet connection, and supported Internet Explorer®, Firefox, or Safari browser are required. Some mobile functionality requires Office Mobile 2010 which is not included in Office 2010 applications, suites, or Web Apps. There are some differences between the features of the Office Web Apps, Office Mobile 2010 and the Office 2010.

** Note that there have been some major changes on the retail side that you should be aware of if not choosing a licensing solution. The Office 2007 FPP suite has been replaced with 3 versions, Home and Student, Home and Business and Professional. And there are no upgrades (due to the utilization of the free Tech Guarantee upgrade to 2010). Also, there are no Academic SKUs available until released by Microsoft with a formal academic reseller program.