One Smart Move: Transition to a Free Office Suite

1. One Smart Move:
Transition To A Free Office Suite
David J Pearson MBCS CITP CEng MIET OpenSource Focus Group
IBM Lotus Symphony Services Lead Held At: IBM Rome, 11th Feb 2011
Lotus Software, IBM UK Ltd
Mailto:David_J_Pearson@uk.ibm.com
Twitter: DJPearson1

2. Legal Disclaimer
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release dates and/or capabilities referenced in this presentation may change at any time at IBM’s sole discretion based on market opportunities or other factors,
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Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance
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the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results
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3. Some Opening Comments....
● I Assume You Are Considering Moving Away From Proprietary
Office Suites
● Because I Work With IBM Customers All The Time – My
Presentation Is Based My Experiences.
● I Hope You Gain Some Best Practice & Ideas :-)
● I Will Use IBM Lotus Symphony As The Main Product I Discuss –
But Most Of This Is OK For Other Free Office Suites.
● If You Have Comments / Questions – Please Wait Until The End
Of The Presentation.
● This Presentation Will Be Made Available To You All After This
Event.
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4. TM
IBM® Lotus® Symphony
SymphonyTM is based on Open Standard = No vendor lock in
 IBM's Office Productivity Suite – includes desktop and cloud offerings
• Built For “The Majority Of Users”
 Supports 28 Languages + Strong Accessibility Support
 EclipseTM / OpenOffice Based - Supports JavaTM, UNO & LotusScript® Dev
 Supports Microsoft® OfficeTM, Lotus® SmartSuite® & OpenDocument Format
(ODF) + Others Inc. Adobe® Acrobat®
Simple and flexible
Free And Is
 Easy to use interface
Supported
 Free To All
 Plugin extension and SDK
 Support Options  Integrated in Lotus® NotesTM 8
•Web Only  Client flexibility,Easy to deploy
•Fee Based
•Support Included
With NotesTM
Client
4

5. OK – Time To Talk About
How To Move To A Free
Office Suite.....
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6. 6

7. ● Moving To A Free Office Suite Will Cost Money
● Licences = Free, Time/Effort/Tools = Cost
● To Understand The Cost Of Moving – And The Cost Saving..
Define The User Community (How Many People).
}
●
● Define Labour Time (Average Cost Per Hour)
● Support Incident Cost Your Costs
● Duration Of Deployment
● Education
● Cost Of Licences IF YOU STAY with proprietary office suite } Your Savings
Your Savings – Your Costs = True Cost
● Online Calculator / ROI Tool Automates / Helps With This.
7 ● Goto >> Free Office Suite ROI Calculator

8. ●
Having A Structured And Agreed Approach Is Key To Success.
●
Don't Boil The Ocean – Phased Deployments Work Best
●
Do Not Underestimate The Volume Of Content You Have
●
Decide The Format Strategy – Microsoft® OfficeTM or ODF
●
If You Have Applications – Do They Have Any Microsoft® OfficeTM
Dependancies In Them ?
●
Communications With Your User Community Is Critical
●
Understand And Manage Expectations
●
Helps To Gain Valuable Information Used For Planning The Overall Transitioning Project
Planning & Preparation Prevents Poor Performance
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9. Office Productivity Suite
Transformation Method
●
Reduce Project Risk
●
Understand Value Of
Your Office Content / How
it's Used In Your Business
●
Evaluate SymphonyTM
Against Business
Requirements
●
Build Deployment Plan
That Incorporates
Education / Support /
Content Conversion.
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10. Starting The Project
●
The Initiate Phase Is Focused On
●
Project Startup
●
Team Formation
●
Definition Of The Project
●
what is to be achieved, how, timescales, costs and deliverables
●
Having Executive Sponsorship Is Critical
●
Should Be Cross Enterprise Project – Across All LOB's
●
Create A Cross Functional Team
●
Don't Underestimate The Cultural Changes
●
Communications & Transformation Planning Is A Must
●
Leverage The Expertise / Experience Of IBM Services
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11. Understand The Size Of The Project
●
Analyse User Community
●
How Microsoft® OfficeTM (And Other Products) Being Used
●
Dependancies On Integrated Applications
●
Various Approaches To Achieve This
●
Questionnaires, Interview Users, Workshops
●
Locate And Analyze Content
●
Where Is Your Content ?
●
What Are The Key Artifacts Used In Each Line Of Business ?
●
Is Migration Of Content Required For SymphonyTM Use ?
Best Practice
●
There Is Tooling Available to Help ! You May Wish To
Establish A Porting
Center.
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12. Understand The Size Of The Project
●
Segmentation Of Users Across Line Of Businesses (LOB)
Best Practice
●
Based On User Needs Versus SymphonyTM Capabilities
●
Plan Out Pilot For Casual / Medium Users
●
Max 30 People
●
Cross LOB
●
Decide How All Parties Receive Education ●
Run Over 4 Wks
●
Define How Feedback / Results Collected & Analyzed
Casual Users Medium Users Power Users
●
Common Uses Of Docs, ●
More Robust Needs For ●
Heavy Excel® Users
Sheets, Presentations Documents, Sheets And ●
Document Templates With
●
Mostly Viewing / Light Presentations. Dialogue Boxes / xForms
Editing ●
Stronger Interoperability ●
Need Integration With
●
Filling Out Templates Requirements 3rd Party Applications.
●
Use Of “Out Of Box” ●
Creates Templates For ●
Heavy Use Of Visual Basic®
Features / Functions Other Users / LOB's Macros
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13. Deploy And Evaluate
●
Install SymphonyTM To Pilot Users PC's
●
Test Deployment Architecture
●
Provide Base Education
●
Make Use Of The Free Materials From IBM®
eg. Learning Plugin + Wiki
●
Possible Use Of Instructor Led Courses –
Must Scale !
●
If Evaluation Of ODF Is A Pilot Goal
●
Convert Key Templates / Artifacts To ODF...
Use Template Libraries To Mange These.
●
Set Rules For Sharing Content With Users
Outside Pilot
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14. Deploy And Evaluate
●
Run The Pilot
●
Users Undertake Normal Job – Using SymphonyTM
●
Support / Issue Resolution Is Key To Future Success
●
Dedicated Support For Pilot
●
Floor Walking Best Practice
●
Support Forums Create A
KnowledgeBase
●
Evaluate The Results
●
Round Table Meetings With Users
●
Common Issues Reported To Support
●
Creation Of Best Practice, Lessons Learnt
●
Identification Of Additional Requirements
●
Plugins, Document Conversion, Application Integration
●
Education & Support
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15. Adoption Across The Enterprise
●
Creation Of A Deployment Roadmap
●
Project Gantt Chart Showing Dates For LOB Deployment Activities
●
Consider Customization Of SymphonyTM Prior To Deployment
●
Branding And Plugin's
●
If You Are Also Moving To ODF – Ensure A Coexistence Model Is
Available.
●
SUNTM Have A Free Microsoft® OfficeTM 2003 Plugin
●
SourceForge.net® – Open XML / ODF Converter
●
Ensure Users Aware Of How To Gain Education & Support
BEFORE You Start Deployment.
Best Practice
Uninstall Microsoft® OfficeTM 30 Days
After SymphonyTM Deployed.
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16. Gaining More Business Value
●
Many Ways To Extend The Look / Feel And Functionality
●
SymphonyTM Development Toolkit
●
LotusScript® .. Notes® / SymphonyTM Working Together.
●
ODFToolkit.org Best Practice
Lots Of Tools &
Ideas On The Web.
●
Business Partner Solutions
●
Rich And Expanding Catalog On The SymphonyTM Website.
●
IBM® Software Services for Lotus®
●
Custom Application Development
●
Solution Design
●
Integration Of SymphonyTM With QuickrTM, Domino® And
WebSphere® PortalTM
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17. Summary Of Approach....
●
A Flexible Framework Of Structured Phases And
Activities
●
Provides A Systematic Approach To Transition
From Your Existing Office Productivity Suite To
IBM® Lotus® SymphonyTM.
●
Its Unique... The Only Published Method
Framework For These Projects.
●
Your Own Additional Activities Can Be Added To
One Of The 5 Phases.
●
Leverage The Experience Of IBM® Software
Services for Lotus®
Download Your Copy Of The Method at:-
http://www.priorartdatabase.com/IPCOM/000186027D
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18. ● The Case For Change
● How Will This Make My Job Easier ?
● How Will I Continue To Collaborate With Others ?
● What Education Will I Get ? Reward Ideas &
● What Happens If I Have A Problem ?
Innovation
● Standards
●
Ensure You Have Standards For File Formats & How You Interact With 3rd
Parties
● Protect / Future Proof Intellectual Capital (Doc,Sheets etc)
Senior
Communities Managers MythBusters
Use It First
18

19. Locate Your
Content
Content
Ease Of Use
Analysis /
Solutions
Conversion
19

20. Locate Your Content
IBM® OmniFind® Yahoo!® Edition
20

21. Content Analysis / Conversion
Indellient Asset Conversion Inspector (ACI)
Migration Effort for Inspected Assets
Files that will convert well (80%)
Files that may require user intervention (13.33%)
Files that will require technical support (6.67%)
13.33%
6.67%
80.00%
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22. Content Analysis / Conversion
Visual Basic Macro Scan Tool
●
Built By IBM And Installed FREE
To Lotus Symphony 3 As A
Plugin
●
Scans documents with VBA
macros and generate a scan
report. The report is an
OpenDocument spreadsheet file
that lists the VBA APIs being
used in the scanned documents
and specifies which APIs are
supported, which APIs are not
supported, and which APIs are
uncertain.
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23. Content Analysis / Conversion
Document Conversion Services Via The Web
23

24. Ease Of Use – Value Adds
●
Integra Have Applications Available To Help With Report
Generation From Data Stored In NSF's
© Shireburn Software Ltd
24

25. TM
Ease Of Use – Symphony Value Adds
Indellient® Vivo for IBM® Lotus®
SymphonyTM
Menu-driven data and
data-field management.
Template prompts and
field auto-population
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26. ●
The World Is Changing
● Do NOT Assume Everyone Has Microsoft Office
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27. Choose A Free Office Suite That
Supports Wide Range Of File Formats.
Define & Enforce Corporate File
Format Standards
Discuss & Agree How To Collaborate
With 3rd Parties
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28. Do You Have Any Questions ?
Thank You / Grazie
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