Great recognition for the Microsoft Project product family. The Gartner Magic Quadrants are a good indications for major and upcoming players in certain area’s and overall Microsoft is doing well in a lot of these analysis …
… Microsoft Corp., a leading provider of project and portfolio management (PPM) software, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner Inc. in the “Leaders” quadrant in the 2007 IT Project and Portfolio Management Applications Magic Quadrant report. The report evaluates services and products that include the Microsoft® Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution.
According to Gartner, product depth in such core areas as advanced scheduling, resources and cost management distinguishes most leaders, and most offer a range of deployment options (for example, pilots, staged implementations and SaaS) to address customers’ varying needs at different levels of PPM capability maturity. Leaders also tend to have, not just capable system integration partners, but some core, direct PPM service offerings, going beyond implementation and support to include process-change consulting. Their vision of the IT PPM market often extends to communication and quality management, with features aimed at improving team performance (for example, via collaborative features and methodology support).
“We consider our positioning in the ‘Leaders’ quadrant by Gartner confirmation of Microsoft’s mission to enable customers to manage complexity in the IT environment and drive down operating costs,” said Irwin Rodrigues, director of Microsoft Office Project at Microsoft. “Our goal is to help people amplify their impact on their businesses by extending project-management capabilities and insight to the entire enterprise.”
The 2007 Microsoft Office EPM Solution, including Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007, Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, is an end-to-end collaborative project and portfolio management environment. The Office EPM Solution helps organizations gain better visibility, insight and control across all their work to enhance decision-making, improve business alignment, maximize resource utilization, increase operational efficiency, and ultimately help increase the return on investment. The Office EPM Solution is built on Windows® SharePoint® Services, taking advantage of its collaboration and document management capabilities in an integrated project and portfolio environment, thus delivering a familiar set of tools to drive alignment at all levels of an organization, from executives to managers to team members. …
Should you have a Gartner subscription, the report can be found here: Gartner.com
Peter,
I’d have to say that there are a lot of people that DON’T like 2007 because Microsoft has been too smart by half and removed the Toolbar (which wrongly or rightly we’ve all learn’t over the last decade!!). You now have the Ribbon but DONT give users the ability to go back to the Toolbar if they want too. I know many people who have gone back to Office 2003 (and older) and may simply skip Office 2007!
You at least didn’t do that with Windows XP with the Start menu Classic/XP format.
Pete
Peter,
I am sorry to hear that. It is not my experience. Sure the Ribbon takes some getting used to, but once someone has gone through this learning curve they truely see the value.
In the case of your example, what have these users / the organsiation done to prepare for the new UI. Did they have Microsoft / a partner explain the ins and outs for example.
I do hear a lot of perception out there but it is hard to pinpoint if this is actual experience or hear say …
Peter,
I am not saying training of end-users is required. I am on the other hand also not saying that it isn’t a change. Is training required ?This depends on the organisation. Many organisation combine the roll-out of Office 2007 (and Vista) with the implementation of a new desktop, sometimes even a new way of working / communicating (for example add new (real time) collaboration features. This means they do more than incremental change.
Sometimes they train people, but in many cases they do an instruction session on the workfloor / in the buillding to explain the basics.
I would love to get some 1:1 feedback from someone who has actually given Office 2007 a real try and decides to migrate back to 2003. What are their real pains ? The UI is very intuitive and it has taken me some 3-4 weeks to get to my old comfortlevel with Office so to say. No training in that case.
Ofcourse I can not talk for other people and they may have good arguments, I simply have not heard good argument.
What I do regard as a compliment and recognition for the Office UI by the way, is the fact that MindJet has used the Office Ribbon for their latest version of MindManager : http://www.mindjet.com/eu/products/mindmanager_pro7/quicktour.php
MindManager is seen by many people as one of the key productivity tools. Why would they “”upset”” their users with a new UI ? I say because they see value in it 😉
Hi Peter,
My experience is from a number of technical guys (IT Admins, Consultants) who have simply gone and installed Office 2007. They are saying that if they are finding the change a real struggle, then how is the simple user going to handle the change? Why should they spend MORE money in training a user in a new Office when most organisations would rather spend the money (& training) on other things??
Pete
Mike,
With every change people complain. You’re right that you can not make it work for everybody.
As always Microsoft is good for many speculations and conspiracy theories 😉
I don’t see a conflict between MindManager and Office. To be very frank I ask myself why Microsoft has not acquired MindManager (this is not a forwardlooking statement, I am not in the “innercircle” who can influence this 😉 ).
I think MindManager is very complementary to Office 2007 (and older version) and the integration is awesome …
One has to applaud Microsoft for trying something new with the ribbon. And I’ll bet that many of the people that complain about learning a new way of doing things with the ribbon are the same people that complain about not being able to find features that were buried away in the old-style menus. You just can’t win!
As ever, there’s a catch. Did MindManager sign up for MS’s licensing terms for the ribbon (see http://www.pcpro.co.uk/realworld/102130/shoot-the-foot.html ) I wonder?
Principal among those terms is that you’re not allowed to use the ribbon in any product that competes with Office: a status that is, apparently, left for Microsoft to define. So, if Microsoft decides that MindManager competes with Office in some way, does that not mean that MindManager will have to lose its ribbon, and its users will have to go back to the “old” way?
Cheers,
– Mike
Hi Peter,
Yeah, I don’t mind that Microsoft is trying something with the ribbon, and sure if it was the first time I’d ever use a word processor I’d probably love it. But guys, why did Microsoft not give the option to turn on the Toolbar to ease the transition, maybe even some of the options (like XP) to ease the pain. I was looking for some options and I had to resort to Office’s online help/Google to find where it was hidden in 07!!
@Peter
You miss my point. It doesn’t matter whether MindManager is complimentary to Office now. My question was, what happens should Microsoft decide that MindManager is a direct competitor to Office in some at some point in the future? How does that affect MindManager’s use of the ribbon?
Notwithstanding that MindManager may be the target maybe the target of a future MS takeover, which of course, would end all discussions on the matter 😉
As Mr Honeyball says, in the article to which I linked, I’ve no problem with MS licensing its IP, as long as it lays out ahead of time what exactly it is that it thinks it owns (unlike its undefined patent threats against Linux) and as long as its licensing terms are clear. The ribbon licensing terms are so vague that I can’t believe any company would sign them, knowing that the other side can redefine its own side of the bargain at will. I mean, just what does “not compete with MS Office” mean these days?
Cheers,
– Mike
Mike,
Apologies for misinterpreting your question.
To this specific point I don’t have an answer. I do not know the details about the agreement. I do know Microsoft is not opportunistic and in fact very thorough when it comes to IP deals.
My guess is they would not want MindJet to start building Office Applications …
I also agree with you that the richness of the Office platform (its more than a suite these days) can cause confusion. Therefor I am glad I am not the the IP licensing or legal department.
Anyway its all speculation unless we know the details of such an agreement. It must have been benefitial to both parties and MindJet has build an impressive new version of their product …