BECTA is a UK government agency set up to promote the efficient and effective use of ICT in education: advising government; co-ordinating ICT in eduction; conducting research; and running delivery programmes. As an independent body with the ear of government, its advice is taken seriously far wider than its direct target of the education sector.

So, the publication last week of its final report into Microsoft Vista and MS-Office 2007 has been eagerly awaited in the UK. A year ago, an interim report found no convincing reasons for upgrading. BECTA also urged Microsoft to include OpenDocument Format (ODF) support in MS-Office 2007. Since then, BECTA has carried out ’significant additional work’. It is a fair bet that Microsoft’s legendary marketing machine has not been sitting idly. So what is Becta’s final considered verdict on MS-Office 2007?

• there is no business case for using MS-Office 2007 in schools - its use could actually exacerbate ‘digital divide’ issues
• schools should not use MS-Office 2007 until Microsoft improves its interoperability with other software like OpenOffice.org through proper support of ODF
• educational suppliers should supply PCs to schools with a choice of pre-installed office productivity tools, ideally including an open-source offering (like OpenOffice.org)

We have argued that OpenOffice.org is the best choice for educational establishments. BECTA has now produced a vendor independent, research-based report supporting our case. It is essential reading for any decision-maker considering an MS-Office 2007 migration. How often do you get impartial advice of this quality for free in IT ?

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 4:45 pm and is filed under OpenOffice.org, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.