In these challenging economic times, many IT leaders are intrigued by the alternatives to Microsoft Office. This intrigue is generated by an interest in cutting licensing costs, minimising the dependency on Microsoft, eliminating software assurance, and increasing consumerisation of cheaper alternative applications.

There certainly isn’t a shortage of reasonable quality alternatives, with growing awareness of web-based (and desktop based) office productivity tools being generated from the Marketing machines at Microsoft and Google. Much of the open source office productivity software available today is feature rich, has ample support documentation available, and offers cross compatibility with Microsoft. Most have variations of office productivity applications that attempt to rival Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, and Visio.

Alternatives include:

In a Forrester survey conducted in 2011, 44 percent of survey respondents were “somewhat interested” in Web-based office productivity tools and 25 percent “actively looking” or “piloting”. Only 3 percent report that they have implemented Web-based Office alternatives (i.e. spent money on them). The obstacles to broad deployment, according to this research, continue to be user acceptance and learning curve, and compatibility with Microsoft Office file formats.

Consideration should be given however, for a hybrid approach to office productivity software deployment. A Microsoft Office alternative product can serve as a replacement for selected groups within an organisation, whilst Microsoft Office can be used for power-users or in situations where business processes or functional need require it. For many (or most) users within organisations, there is ample functionality available in non-Microsoft office software alternatives to warrant investigation of a hybrid model. Concerns will no doubt arise over support, maintenance and training of two office productivity applications, and the inevitable integration / compatibility challenges. Integrating a hybrid approach provides users the choice of Microsoft Office and a non-Microsoft alternative. A detailed business case and proof of concept will be essential in getting it across the line.