CIOIN

There's enthusiasm for the new version of Office, but according to a survey of 950 IT professionals conducted by Dimensional Research, there's no rush to roll it out: Enterprise IT views Office 2010 as a complex and daunting upgrade.

Eighty-five percent of respondents plan to upgrade eventually, but only 18 percent have plans to deploy broadly in 2010. As of now, only 4 percent have Office 2010 fully deployed, and 52 percent have not deployed it in any way. The rest are deploying Office 2010 on test machines or on new machines only. A majority of respondents (78 percent) cited said some of their top concerns were the new ribbon interface, compatibility with current applications and licensing. "It seems that migration concerns are outweighing confidence of a speedy Office 2010 migration, said Diane Hagglund, senior research analyst for Dimensional Research.

The Ribbon user interface, where a set of toolbars are arranged on tabs across the top of an Office document, was introduced in Office 2007 and enhanced in Office 2010. Still, Office 2003 users remain intimidated by it. About 45 percent of respondents are worried about training employees on the new Ribbon interface.

Incompatibility with add-in apps was also listed as worrisome by 33 percent of respondents. Incompatibility with Office 2003 formats was listed as worrisome by the same amount of respondents.

Many are also unwillingness to bypass Office 2007. Only 37 percent of respondents said they would move straight from Office 2003 to Office 2010.

SoundAdvice
Don't upgrade to Office 2010 for the customizable Ribbon alone, but the enhancements will go a long way toward easing the transition from Office 2003 (which had no Ribbons) to Office 2010.

Recognize the feature you mainly use. If you use Word and Excel, and don't use Outlook or use it rarely, this new version will rank on your nice-to-have rather than must-have list.

Be aware that your existing Outlook add-ins may not work with this version of Outlook. Google's Calendar Sync, which synchronizes your Google Calendar and Outlook calendar, won't work in Office 2010.