Three Variations on a Theme: An In-Depth Analysis of Office Suites from Google, Microsoft, and OpenOffice.org

This 38-page report is the first side-by-side comparison of office suite offerings from Google, Microsoft, and OpenOffice.org. While such suites all include word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software, there are many differences in how individual features and functionality are implemented, such as collaboration tools, application integration, and even basic feature sets.

These differences can have a critical impact on the effectiveness and productivity of knowledge workers, and by extension, an entire organization.

Three Variations on a Theme: An In-Depth Analysis of Office Suites from Google, Microsoft, and OpenOffice.org takes a comprehensive look at these offerings and judges them based on their ability to form the foundations of a Collaborative Business Environment.

The report rates the suites with the Knowledge Worker Impact Quotient™, or KWIQ™. The rating is designed to help companies understand the strengths and weaknesses of tools as they apply to the needs of the knowledge worker, and describes the range of positive impact a Collaborative Business Environment can be expected to have on the knowledge worker. The higher the KWIQ Index, the better a company’s chances are of improving their workers’ overall efficiency and effectiveness.

In this report, Basex provides an exhaustive analysis of three leading office suites:

• Google Apps Premier Edition, the fee-based software service that is a business version of Google Apps, the company’s free offering.
• Microsoft Office 2010, the current incarnation of the product that invented the office suite category with its introduction in 1989.
• The OpenOffice.org Productivity Suite, an open-source desktop productivity suite.

• What are the important differences between these offerings, and how do they affect an organization’s choice?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the individual offerings, such as off-line functionality, mobile support, and collaboration tools?
• What impact do the different suites have on productivity?
• Which suite is right for the organization?