[OPLINTECH] Open Office Software

[Shane Ian Hoffman]

I'll try to be brief and throw out some discussion points:

1: IT folks, myself included, seem to sometimes forget that just because we
can pick up a new program easily doesn't mean that someone needs Office
skills for a new job or promotion or who is just trying to keep up with
their kids will get even those minute differences.  They need to learn on
what they'll be using.

2: If I get hit by a truck, how tough is it going to be for my employer to
find a replacement who can support all of these "off brand" items.  There's
a reason things are called "Industry Standard".

3: If you put it on your PCs, you need to be willing to support it.  I'd be
willing to give some latitude if you put out some highly specialized
software, but not so much for commonly used products.  I don't want to
support more than one product for a given task.  It's not an efficient use
of my time.

4: It's not that expensive to put Office on a PC.  You can get the copy of
office with the most features for $60.  I think that through Tech Soup, if
you can get through their registration process, for about $20.  

This is why I would have a hard time justifying putting a product out for
public use that just doesn't have the market share.  




-----Original Message-----
From: oplintech-bounces at oplin.org [mailto:oplintech-bounces at oplin.org] On
Behalf Of Mann, James H.
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 9:05 AM
To: Ed Liddle; masontj at manasst.com
Cc: Chad Neeper (list); oplintech at oplin.org
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Open Office Software

Ed
You're young and may have never heard of "techno stress" LOL.
IMHO if you have staff who wants to use OOo, Office 2007, or Macs for
that matter go for it.
If you want to offer patrons an open source cd so they can breathe more
life into their older home computers....bless you.
But I'd be a little cautious about unwinding 11 years of techno stress
on the part of the public service staff by moving away from Microsoft.
This isn't to say that you couldn't do a series of programs to retrain
your staff but than again, and I think that it's what Tom is saying, is
that you're into the "free like free kittens" paradigm.

BTW: Have I ever shared the true and expensive story of $100 Kitty?


 

Jim Mann

Technology Coordinator

Greene County Public Library

Xenia Ohio 45385

(937)352-4000 x1210

mailto: jmann at gcpl.lib.oh.us

Humor is always based on a modicum of truth Have you ever heard a joke
about a father-in-law? -- Dick Clark


-----Original Message-----
From: oplintech-bounces at oplin.org [mailto:oplintech-bounces at oplin.org]
On Behalf Of Ed Liddle
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 8:53 AM
To: masontj at manasst.com
Cc: 'Chad Neeper (list)'; oplintech at oplin.org
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Open Office Software

What is the cost of retraining staff to use office 2007 vs OOo or heck
even retraining staff to use vista vs linux vs mac instead of windows
xp?  How much time will be taken up from answering questions from
patrons about using office 2007 vs using OOo ? That would be just as
interesting for me to look at. 
Reference librarians get paid on an hourly basis to answer questions. It
is after all part of their job. I am not sure what difference the
questions make. Some questions are easy to answer, some are harder. I
don't see where the cost spent on answering office application questions
is any different than other questions. 

I tend to think that something as common as an office suite should not
require much cost to train someone how to use it if they have used other
office suites and are familiar with how to use a computer, access the
internet etc. If you decide to use a different office suite do you
enroll in training classes at a place like new horizons or a class at
your local community college to learn how to use it? 
I personally just start using it, exploring where everything is in the
menus and use the help menu or online help I find from using google to
do what I need to get done. 

 For library patrons who have never touched a computer or an office
suite the "training" would be the same regardless which office suite
they use. Personally I think it would be more beneficial to train a
patron to use something that they could obtain for free to use at home
on their PC rather than teach them how to use something they may not be
able to afford for their PC at home, or may obtain illegally to use on
their home computer.

-Ed Liddle  

On Tue, 2008-01-22 at 20:30 -0500, Tom Mason wrote:
> To further add a business slant, does someone have a cost
justification
> spreadsheet comparing the 5 year rotational cost of MS office versus
the
> support cost of OO?  We change our customer's version of Office when
they
> demand it or every 4-5 years.  At $60 AE cost per PC, that's $12-15
per PC
> per year.  That's also a high cost compared to larger volume purchases
such
> as Cleveland Public may make.
> 
> I don't know the Open Office compatibility well, but I assume it works
well
> from Chad's comments.  
> All schools train students on MS Office use currently and most
businesses
> use MS Office(95%?). I'm just trying to figure out why and how the
library
> can pay someone to re-train the staff, patrons, students who need Word
> because of teacher's requirements, etc, for the less than $15 it costs
per
> year per pc or less for education/library customers.  
> 
> I don't think there is a justification for the time spent making the
change,
> answering questions about versions, compatibility and so on, so I'd
like to
> see the cost/benefit analysis that someone has done that includes
Reference
> staff time, support staff time, consultant time, and user irritation
time
> (with having to do something new).  Based on past experience, I would
> anticipate an average of 60 min staff/support per day per 20 pc's,
answering
> questions, retraining new staff, explaining to staff and patrons, etc.
20
> pc's cost is $300 per year for licenses for MS Office.  A librarian is
> conservatively $50k cost per year with benefits.  1 hour is roughly
$24 x 52
> = $1250/year versus $300 MS office Cost.
> 
> Is this a good subject for study, for techs to know about and continue
> watching? Of course.  However, the extra costs may be better spent on
books
> or new PC's, more bandwidth or fulfilling more user requests.  No
survey
> I've seen says the public is demanding OO vs MS Office.
> 
> Btw We don't sell MS Office or MS software to libraries other than the
XP
> OEM we put on the new custom computers we build.  We've been
supporting
> libraries for over 15 years in multiple states.
> 
> As Chad says "fwiw".
> 
> Thomas Mason, MCSE, AANG, Sr. Consultant
> Management Assistance, Inc.
> Manufacturing, Academic and Government Solutions
> "We make it happen for you!"
> masontj at manasst.com 440.355.6962 Fax:440-355-4355
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: oplintech-bounces at oplin.org [mailto:oplintech-bounces at oplin.org]
On
> Behalf Of Chad Neeper (list)
> Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 2:39 PM
> To: oplintech at oplin.org
> Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Open Office Software
> 
> To add a business slant:  I've been exclusively using OOo for business

> for four+ years now. There's no going back to MS Office or Corel
Office 
> (both of which I've used extensively in the last ten+ years).
Especially 
> within OOo Calc (think Excel or Quattro Pro), I can attest to the 
> completeness of the feature set and compatibility OOo has with MS 
> Office. OOo is pretty much a no-brainer compared with MS Office.
> 
> When it comes to the schools and libraries I support, I've been slowly

> introducing OOo. I think Chauncey's comments about staff adoption are 
> spot-on. Some of the staff take to it right away with no problems. 
> Others are resistant to change and don't want to take any time at all
to 
> adjust to a different program, even though the OOo interface is
similar 
> to that of pre-2007 MS Office.
> 
> For what it's worth,
> Chad
> 
> -----------------------
> Chad Neeper
> Senior Systems Engineer
> 
> Level 9 Networks
> 740-548-8070 (voice)
> 866-214-6607 (fax)
> 
> --   Full LAN/WAN consulting services   --
> -- Specialized in libraries and schools --
> 
> 
> 
> shivelri at oplin.org wrote:
> > Hello, I am the IT Specialist at Greenville Public Library and we
have 
> > started to use OO for some of our patron and staff computers. I was 
> > curious as to how many other libraries are using OO and what their 
> > experience has been with it? Do the patrons get along fine with it? 
> > Does the staff?
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OPLINTECH mailing list
> > OPLINTECH at oplin.org
> > http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/oplintech
> >   
> 

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