Deployment of office 2007

bjaxx

Just curious on how many have done it and how many feel the project succeeded?

What have been some of the pros/cons?

hypnotoad

Deployed it last year to 400 machines (100% of employees), in addition to IE7 on XP. Deployment wasn't bad. We didn't do any real deploying because we had to reimage/get new systems anyway. I hear trying to push out the MSI is a real pain.

Anyway, the biggest problems are:

1. 2007 uses the .docx (.XLSX, .PPTX) format, so 2003 people need to install the compatibility tool. This goes not only for your internal people, but people who might try to open your .docx files -- so your vendors, for example.

2. 2007 uses a "Ribbon" and does away with File, Edit, View...Help. So your users are going to complain for a while.

3. 2007 changes a few things that some people have memorized a process for, such as mail merge.

The interface is good, the install is easy enough, the documents are more finished looking when they're made -- i.e. word fonts look better and powerpoints aren't so bland. I think the project was a success, but it will definently raise some questions and complaints. From an IT perspective, it's solid. However, if your users are as fickle and stuck in their ways as mine, they won't like it, as it is a drastic departure from previous versions. They will learn to live with it.

Anonymouse

On my last contract we were deploying Office 2007. I'd load up on those tickets as good filler between my trouble tickets and such. I didn't see many issues except for people using Access we had to keep Access 2003 and tell them not to use Access 2007 because people in the office weren't able to load the database. Other than that the only real problem was the older crowd being very difficult about trying to learn the new Office. I came into work one day and found someone already upgraded me without telling me and had no problem getting accustomed to it.

bjaxx

Anonymouse wrote:

On my last contract we were deploying Office 2007. I'd load up on those tickets as good filler between my trouble tickets and such. I didn't see many issues except for people using Access we had to keep Access 2003 and tell them not to use Access 2007 because people in the office weren't able to load the database. Other than that the only real problem was the older crowd being very difficult about trying to learn the new Office. I came into work one day and found someone already upgraded me without telling me and had no problem getting accustomed to it.

Good to know,

were currently using office xp.

were around 250 strong, so this should be a good project to go along with exchange 2007 that I put in around feb of this year.


Thanks for your insight, my concerns had alot to do with access - we have alot of older access databases around here.

dynamik

We've done it. It took a little bit for people to get acclimated to the new UI, but they've all liked it overall.

Daniel333

train train and train some more.

Snag some training vidoes on Office 2007 before you roll out. People hate the change.

bjaxx

Daniel333 wrote:

train train and train some more.

Snag some training vidoes on Office 2007 before you roll out. People hate the change.

we got the ones from train signal, whats the licensing on that? anyone know?

Slowhand

New features aside, I found it very easy to deploy Office 2007 using the new deployment tool (setup.exe /admin). You can customize just about every feature of every Office program, including what the default save file-format will be, slipstreaming the CD key, choosing whether you uninstall older versions of Office, keep them, or upgrade, etc. Let's just say that there are lots more (useful) bells and whistles in this version of the deployment tool, than found in those of Office past. I found it to be very useful, and made setting up a distribution point for deployment a breeze.

dynamik

bjaxx wrote:

Daniel333 wrote:

train train and train some more.

Snag some training vidoes on Office 2007 before you roll out. People hate the change.

we got the ones from train signal, whats the licensing on that? anyone know?

What did you buy: http://trainsignal.com/corporate.html ?

nicklauscombs

we have a rollout of this next month, should be interesting

blargoe

We ended up reimaging everyone's computer because the results of doing an inplace upgrade of 2003 were a mixed bag.

Anonymouse

blargoe wrote:

We ended up reimaging everyone's computer because the results of doing an inplace upgrade of 2003 were a mixed bag.

That sounds kind of extreme.

Silentsoul

We are sticking with 2003 except a few choice machines in the tech department. BUT we did just push out the compatibility pack via GPO to one office and are about to push it out to all machines. Works very well.

brad-

hypnotoad wrote:

1. 2007 uses the .docx (.XLSX, .PPTX) format, so 2003 people need to install the compatibility tool. This goes not only for your internal people, but people who might try to open your .docx files -- so your vendors, for example.

2. 2007 uses a "Ribbon" and does away with File, Edit, View...Help. So your users are going to complain for a while.

3. 2007 changes a few things that some people have memorized a process for, such as mail merge.

The interface is good, the install is easy enough, the documents are more finished looking when they're made -- i.e. word fonts look better and powerpoints aren't so bland. I think the project was a success, but it will definently raise some questions and complaints. From an IT perspective, it's solid. However, if your users are as fickle and stuck in their ways as mine, they won't like it, as it is a drastic departure from previous versions. They will learn to live with it.

Ditto. The file formats are not backwards compatible...ie a .docx will not open at all with 2003. New interface moves everything around, but I think much better in the long run. 2003 documents might need to be converted...small headaches for non-tech people.

dynamik

Remember, you can get the compatibility pack for 2003 clients: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en

blargoe

Anonymouse wrote:

blargoe wrote:

We ended up reimaging everyone's computer because the results of doing an inplace upgrade of 2003 were a mixed bag.

That sounds kind of extreme.

Yeah, but I got to pass the buck to the support staff so it's all good