The Hindu : Microsoft unveils Office 2003

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003

Business

Business

Microsoft unveils Office 2003

By Our Special Correspondent

Rajiv Kaul, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd., at the launch of Microsoft Office 2003 in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI OCT. 21. In conjunction with the worldwide launch, Microsoft India today unveiled its latest offering Microsoft Office System whose core is the Office 2003. The Microsoft Office System includes programs, servers, solutions and services. As part of the launch of Office System, Microsoft introduced three new products — InfoPath, OneNote and Office Live Communication Server, in addition to Microsoft Office 2003 and new versions of several existing offerings.

"This launch signals the transformation of Microsoft's flagship Office brand, from a productivity applications suite to a productivity system,'' said officials. Four partners including Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, IntelSys, Prodapt, and Tata Consultancy Services demonstrated their solutions at the launch event. ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS Industries and Ashok Leyland are some of the early adopters of the Office System in India.

The company has identified four different needs which Office System will help address. These include; integration with business processes, utilisation of information, more effective and streamlined collaboration within and outside an organisation, and transformation of individual productivity improve- ments into specific benefits to the organisation.

Commenting on the expected customer uptake of the product Microsoft India Managing Director, Rajiv Kaul, said, "We are confident of the success of this offering in India. In the first phase, we expect traction to come from the burgeoning BFSI, IT Services, and IT enabled services and manufacturing verticals. At the centre of the Office System lies Office 2003, the next version of Microsoft's flagship productivity applications suite.

It includes capabilities to restrict unauthorised access and use of documents and e-mails. Improvements have been made to the e-mail client Outlook including changes to its interface and integrated instant messaging. In addition, Microsoft has introduced software which allows users to access Microsoft's research repositories over the Internet to create documents and reports.

The product also includes support for XML, the industry standard for information exchange, making Office fully compatible with any other offering supporting XML.

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