Report Plan

Comparative Benefits of Microsoft office and Open office for businesses

Alisdair Smith | S09473519

Contents
Contents................................................................................................................ 2 Introduction........................................................................................................... 3 Main Report Structure............................................................................................ 3 Comparison Criteria............................................................................................... 4 Bibliography........................................................................................................... 5

Introduction
The following pages outline and specify the direction a report comparing open source and closed source software will take. The topical area chosen for the report is to compare Microsoft Office with OpenOffice.org in terms of applicability for businesses. The report will examine in detail the benefits and drawbacks of using these applications for day to day requirements, in addition to this the eligibility for the software to be used by businesses will be taken into account, examining opinions of professionals as well as various tech reviews. As well as this, a series of tests will be carried out first hand to compare functionality and ease of use, these tests will be detailed later in the report plan.

Main Report Structure

The main report will be split into the following sections: Introduction Specification of Criteria o Justification for Criteria

Comparing and Contrasting of Software o o o o Benefits of Open Office Drawbacks of Open Office Benefits of Microsoft Office Drawbacks of Microsoft Office

Conclusion References

Comparison Criteria
To demonstrate the benefits of each software suite, the following criteria will be used: Cost: For businesses, cost of software suites is hugely important; spending money on software is only done if there is a good need for it. This is easily measureable by researching costs for downloading the software suites, and for purchasing hard copies. Also taken into account will be costs of different versions e.g. Microsoft Office Home, professional etc. Functionality/Features: What features does each software suite come with, whats needed, what is redundant? Measurable by the different packages included, e.g. Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Open Office Writer, Open Office Math etc. This section will also compare what these applications can do in the form of a tick sheet. Example of test: Excel vs. Calc, number of nested IF statements available for formulas. Example of test: Word vs. Writer, test ability to create references and insert bibliographies and citations. This section will also deal with researching other benefits of the software suites in terms of reliability, and professional opinions, to measure these things technical reviews from reputable reviewers such as TechRepublic and cnet. Support: The other major area of importance to any business is support for their software, how easily any issue can be resolved, who can they contact and how quickly can an issue be sorted. This area is more difficult to measure beyond a check list of support resources and researching user issues that regularly come up. However its important for the end user to know and should be part of the criteria. This section will also deal with how regular updates are rolled out for each suite. Security: The final area to be compared and measured between software suites will be security, another crucial area, especially for businesses that deal with sensitive data. This section will be measured in terms of known security risks that each suite has, and response time in getting them fixed.

Bibliography
Bonfield, B. (2010, July 2). Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org . Retrieved from techsoup.org: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/software/page4765.cfm Open Office. (n.d.). Retrieved from TechRepublic: http://www.techrepublic.com/topics/openoffice Parker, J. (2010, May 17). Microsoft Office 2010 Review. Retrieved from Cnet: http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Office-2010/3000-18483_411383105.html?tag=mncol;txt