White Paper

Transitioning from MS Office to LibreOffice: a business case

Copyright
This document is Copyright 2013 by its contributors as listed below. You may distribute it or modify it under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution !hareAli"e #icense $http%&&creativecommons.org&licenses&by sa&3.0&'( version 3.0 or later. All trademar"s within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
)avid Clinton

Feedback
*lease direct any comments or suggestions about this document to% documentation+global.libreoffice.org.

Publication date
*ublished 2, -ctober( 2013.

Contents
Copyright..............................................................................................................................2 Contents................................................................................................................................2 Executive Summary.............................................................................................................3 Methodology.........................................................................................................................3 Purchase and license costs................................................................................................3 Productivity and e iciency.................................................................................................!
Access to critical features............................................................................................................ . !oftware availability..................................................................................................................... . Training costs............................................................................................................................... . /ntuitive interface design.............................................................................................................. 0

So t"are support costs.......................................................................................................# $% costs..................................................................................................................................& Multiple plat orms and ile ormats....................................................................................& 'ocument collaboration......................................................................................................(

12ecutive !ummary
The #ibre-ffice office suite 3 which includes fully functional programs for word processing( spreadsheets( presentations( des"top publishing design( and data management 3 does pretty much everything that 4icrosoft5s -ffice will do( but is available for free. 6ut is 7free7 the same as 7no cost(7 and can your business be as 3 or even more 3 productive using it8 !o you can ma"e your own intelligent decision whether or not to move your office team to #ibre-ffice( we e2amined the "ey elements re9uired for a serious cost&benefit analysis. :eature for feature( the two pac"ages probably balance out( overlapping in nearly all critical areas with each e2celling in uni9ue areas. )ifferences in design interface seem largely a matter of taste( but #ibre-ffice5s versatility and ease of configuration ma"e satisfying individual needs much simpler. 4! -ffice can boast better integrated document collaboration( incrementally 9uic"er $if more e2pensive' product support and( considering that we are tal"ing about moving an operation from -ffice to #ibre-ffice( lower $but not negligible' 7transition7 costs. 6esides suffering no up front purchase costs( #ibre-ffice users will benefit from lower long term /T costs( greater software stability( unrestricted multi platform installations( and superior document format compatibility. /gnoring( for the purposes of this discussion( any special needs an individual case could present( we discovered no significant structural or financial penalty that an enterprise might face by choosing to adopt the #ibre-ffice suite. -r( in other words( you5ve got a great deal to gain and very little to lose.

4ethodology
/n business( ;ust about everything can 3 and often must 3 be 9uantified for both its cost and benefits. Analy<ing whether you would be better off adopting a new office productivity suite or stic"ing with what you5ve already got re9uires far more than ;ust comparing product price tags% you5ve got to loo" at every "ind of interaction your team and /T infrastructure will have with this product through its entire life cycle. !hould you move your operation from 4! -ffice over to the free #ibre-ffice pac"age8 The sheer comple2ity of the business and /T worlds pretty much guarantees that that 9uestion has no simple and universally correct answer. 6ut we can provide some of the tools you5ll need to help you...

= = =

1stimate both the total cost of ownership and return on investment that you are li"ely to e2perience using both pac"ages. 6rea" the costs and benefits into logical categories. Create illustrative theoretical models.

The rest of this white paper should at least illustrate the way we approach the 9uestion.

*urchase and license costs

Cost would seem to be #ibre-ffice5s most obvious advantage. !imply put( 4icrosoft charges money for the use of their product and the #ibre-ffice :oundation doesn5t. As the chart that will appear below will show( 4icrosoft5s -ffice 3>0 license fees for small and mid
Purchase and license costs

)eal*"orld cost*comparisons+ 7The :rench ta2 agency claims that upgrading its ?0(000 des"tops to -ffice @* would cost A2,.0 million( but switching to -pen-ffice.org only A200(000.7
$opeonoffice.blogs.com&openoffice&200>&03&openofficeorgBi .html'

7#ower costs with #ibre-ffice #ibre-ffice can lower your costs up to >0C over a three year period compared to other office productivity suites. All this while offering interoperability and world class support.7
$suse.com&products&libreoffice&'

si<ed businesses run between D0.10 and D10..0 per user( per month. That comes to between D>1.20 and D1?..?0 per year. 6uying the full -ffice suite outright from 4icrosoft will cost between D200 and D01, for a single user. #ibre-ffice is( of course( free. -f course( that5s not 9uite the whole story. !tudents( educational institutions( non profits( libraries( and even government institutions can be eligible for discounted pricing from 4icrosoft( and third party vendors are often able to offer better prices than the official retail. 6ut cost of ownership is nevertheless among #ibre-ffice5s strongest selling points.

*roductivity and efficiency

A software pac"age5s stic"er price is only one way to measure its true cost. 1ven if a developer offered to pay you to use their product( if poor design and a confusing user interface end up slowing down your team and compromising overall productivity( you haven5t gained much from the e2ercise( have you8 Ee will e2amine some of the "ey areas controlling user productivity.

Access to core features

There has been 9uite a lot written comparing 4! -ffice5s feature set with that of #ibre-ffice( the most comprehensive of which is probably a wi"i page from the #ibre-ffice )ocument :oundation.i The bottom line seems to be that there are individual areas where each pac"age stands out( but ta"en as a whole( it can5t be said that either is clearly superior. !o( for instance( while 4! -ffice can claim better email and calendar integration $-utloo"'( document collaboration( and the ability to easily import Access databases( and *): and @4# filesF #ibre-ffice ..2 provides smaller $and faster' document si<es( simpler $and cheaper' locali<ation( native connections to 4y!G# and *ostgre!G# databases( incomparable document compatibility( more stable handling of large $200H page' documents( and the ability to run on many more platforms than -ffice 2013 3 including on Eindows @*I

!oftware availability
There5s nothing li"e losing access to your office productivity suite to slow you down. And that( if you have purchased a recent version of 4! -ffice and then e2perience a hardware failure $or upgrade'( is e2actly what you might face. Jntil -ffice 2013( registered users could( a limited number of times( transfer a license to a new computer following a crash as long as it wasn5t within ninety days of a previous install. :rom -ffice 2013 and on( however( the software is permanently tied to the first machine on which it was installed. :or all practical purposes( there are no e2ceptions. #ibre-ffice( obviously( can be installed as often( wherever( and on whichever operating system you li"e.

Training costs
/ntroducing people who have been comfortable doing things one way to something new is always going to be difficult. 4oving an office team( whose hard earned e2perience has centered around 4! -ffice( towards the #ibre-ffice suite is bound to be tric"y. !ome people will need formal training( some macros will need rewriting( and everyone is going need time. /n fact( the #ibre-ffice )ocument :oundation recently released a white paper that focused on preparing to face ;ust these challenges.ii 6ut we mustn5t forget that any system changes can be e2pensive. The usability changes associated with 4icrosoft5s product upgrades have long been "nown for their disruptive scope( and
Productivity and efficiency 4

many software trainers earn a very nice living serving their business customers as they suffer through 4! -ffice pac"age upgrades. A more complete understanding of the real productivity and training costs re9uired by either transition or upgrade is something that deserves deeper study.

/ntuitive interface design

A little browsing through online discussion forums will 9uic"ly reveal that( one way or the other( people have strong opinions about the user interface associated with their particular office suite. A case in point is the range of passionate reactions to the new hierarchical( tab based( ribbon menu system first adopted by 4icrosoft in their -ffice 200K release. :or some( it was a huge brea"through in the search for the ideal( most intuitive and efficient interface. :or others( it was a confused and confusing mess. There is no ob;ective way to measure who in this fierce debate is correct( but there is no 9uestion that no one system can possibly hope to serve every need. #ibre-ffice( with its versatility( robust e2tension libraries and 3 because its source code is( after all( freely available for any use 3 openness to personali<ation( clearly offers the greatest range of options. -r( in other words( if your users don5t li"e it the way it is right now( feel free to change it.

!oftware support costs

Ehether either #ibre-ffice or 4! -ffice provides a more intuitive( idiot proof interface is a debate which has been the sub;ect of much heat and precious little light. As such evaluations are( almost by definition( sub;ective( for the purposes of this paper( we5ll simply leave the 9uestion unanswered and award the cost advantage to neither side. 6ut no matter how well designed it might be( anyone using software as big and complicated as an office productivity suite is sooner or later bound to run into trouble. 12perienced users will usually be able to confidently access built in and online help resources and push themselves through the impasse. 6ut not all members of your team are so e2perienced or confident( and the time will surely arrive when they will need e2ternal help. Ehat we want to "now( therefore( is how much solving the problem is li"ely to cost you( and how long it will ta"e. 4icrosoft includes some product support with its -ffice 3>0 license( whose costs and benefits are illustrated below%

#icense
-ffice 3>0 !mall 6usiness -ffice 3>0 !mall 6usiness *remium -ffice 3>0 4idsi<e 6usiness

Cost &user&month
D0.10 D13.20

Te2t support
Mirtual chat and web&email Mirtual chat and web&email Mirtual chat and web&email

*hone support
2.&K for critical issues 2.&K for critical and , 0 for non critical issues 2.&K for all issues

Lesponse time
1 hour for critical 1 hour for critical Ne2t business day for high need issues 1 hour for critical ? hours for high need issues

D10..0

4ore immediate and personal support is also available for both 4! -ffice and #ibre-ffice from many third party providers. :ree help for users of both pac"ages can also be found through many /nternet support forums( where community members donate their time and e2pertise to anyone troubled enough to as" a 9uestion. To get an idea whether there is practical support available for #ibre-ffice users that5s
Software support costs 5

comparable to 4icrosoft5s paid services( we e2amined two help forums associated with Apache5s -pen-ffice $an open source pac"age pretty much identical to #ibre-ffice' which helps #ibre-ffice users at least as much as -pen-ffice5s. /s there some way to measure the 9uality and speed of support available to #ibre-ffice users8 Ehile there are many individual volunteers who respond to users5 online 9uestions( some are particularly devoted and successful. /n order to measure the 9uality and speed of the support available through these forums( we e2amined the recent records of two prominent moderators. -ne( calling himself Oagar )elest and wor"ing mostly at forum.openoffice.org( has provided nearly 20(000 posts $and that5s besides his activity on www.ubuntuforums.org and who "nows where else'. The other( "nown as :loris M( answers mostly through oooforum.org. :or this white paper( we e2amined the ten most recent threads addressed by each of these two volunteer moderators and measured the time between the initial 9uestion being posted and the first reply $ta"ing the time until the problem was solved into account would involve too many variables to be useful'. The twenty cases we did e2amine seemed to have produced solutions 3 or at least appropriate redirection towards the place where the answer could be found 3 about K0C of the time. 6ear in mind that some of the threads were less than ten hours old when they were tabulated and that some of them were opened very late at night or over wee"ends.

7Name7 Oagar )elest :loris M

Total posts

C of all posts

Average posts&day 11.00 2.0.

Average 1st response time 3.3 hours ..? hours

2.(330 .(>,0

?.,3C
1.20C

These times are averages ta"en from a rather small sampling. /n fact( /t wasn5t unusual for 9uestions to be dealt with and solved with thirty minutes. :ree product support for #ibre-ffice( it would therefore seem( is available with an average response time only moderately slower than what is offered through 4icrosoft5s paid service for critical need issues and significantly faster for high need issues.

/T costs
Ehat is your office software suite li"ely to cost you in terms of /T e2penses8 Eell for one thing( the pac"age with the lighter hardware footprint $i.e.( that re9uires the lowest processing and memory standards' is going to allow you the option of deploying older( cheaper e9uipment. /n this department( #ibre-ffice( mainly because of its significantly smaller document si<es( is the obvious winner% minimum system re9uirements for #ibre-ffice have always been lower than for -ffice. And( apparently mostly due to its more stable handling of large documents( #ibre-ffice is also widely perceived as less prone to catastrophic crashes( meaning that /T techs will be called in for emergency data recovery less fre9uently. Oere too however( a more systematic study of historical performance data would li"ely lead to a better understanding.

4ultiple platforms and file formats

#ibre-ffice5s built in versatility must surely count as a huge advantage% if circumstances re9uire that various departments in your company use different operating systems $li"e #inu2( :ree6!)(
Multiple platforms and file formats 6

Eindows( or 4ac-!'( you will have no trouble at all moving documents bac" and forth( since #ibre-ffice can be installed natively on all of those platforms. 4! -ffice( on the other hand( will for all practical purposes run only on Eindows and 4ac-!( severely limiting in house document portability. Not only that( but 4! -ffice 2010 and 2013 can5t even open some documents created in earlier versions of 4! -ffice itself( while #ibre-ffice can handle ;ust about everythingI And even if you should need some missing feature or encounter a serious incompatibility with #ibre-ffice( if you need it badly enough( you can always have an e2tension or custom #ibre-ffice build created from the ground up. Trying that with -ffice might land you in trouble with some of the world5s most aggressive lawyers.

)ocument collaboration
-ne area that5s of critical interest in the business environment is document collaboration. Eith clients( contractors( and cowor"ers often living and wor"ing thousands of miles apart( "ey documents must often be commonly available through the cloud at various stages in their development. 4icrosoft( through their !harepoint and !"ydrive services( would seem to have had a significant advantage( as their users can fully and securely share all -ffice documents. 6ut that5s 9uic"ly changing. The open source private cloud storage pac"age( ownCloud( recently announced ownCloud )ocuments to provide seamless document collaboration 3 either from within #ibre-ffice $4! -ffice( for that matter' or your browser. /n fact( there are serviceable collaboration options besides ownCloud%

!ince #ibre-ffice can save and edit files in many formats( including 4icrosoft5s .)-C or .)-C@( there is no reason why files created in #ibre-ffice cannot be shared and edited within 4icrosoft5s own -ffice Eeb Apps. /n fact( !"ydrive and !harepoint will now also allow you to edit -pen )ocument :ormat $-):' files. 1ven without !"ydrive( #ibre-ffice users should have no trouble sharing documents with colleagues wor"ing on any platform( anywhere in the /nternet using des"top file sharing services li"e )ropbo2 or Jbuntu -ne. The more robust collaboration made possible through 4icrosoft5s !harepoint can also be achieved through third party services li"e Team)rive( Alfresco( Jnison( or any one of the many enterprise level 1C4 vendors.

Document collaboration

i ii

!ee https%&&wi"i.documentfoundation.org&:eatureBComparison%B#ibre-fficeB B4icrosoftB-ffice !ee http%&&documentfoundation.files.wordpress.com&2013&03&tdf migrationwhitepaper1.pdf