Microsoft's latest initiative is to expand the capabilities of Office with new tools for collaboration, communications, planning and document handling, according to the New York Times article Ambitious Package to Raise Productivity (and Microsoft's Profit) (Steve Lohr, August 16, 2004). As an example, a worker using Word, Excel and Outlook will be able to quickly access related information in a corporate database.

Microsoft views collaboration as the next step in increasing worker productivity, and economists and analysts agree, according to the article.

'The low-cost, networked communications of the Internet make it a possibility. But there is a long way to go. Analysts estimate that 95 percent of today's workers use the telephone and e-mail for team projects.'

The article quotes Microsoft's in-house use of web conferencing as proof of the new efficiencies:

'The company's use of LiveMeeting, a Microsoft conferencing program, has increased to 40,000 hours a week from 2,000 hours a week a year ago. Mr. [Anoop ] Gupta [, vice president of Microsoft's real-time collaboration group,] says that one of every five face-to-face meetings can be replaced with Web conferencing tools, and Microsoft estimates that it will save $70 million in reduced travel this year.

'"What is productivity? It's finding the right people and information, and not wasting a lot of time and energy with telephone tag," Mr. Gupta said. "It means less time in airports and rental cars, and more time doing productive work and with your family. I think people understand and relate to these problems."'

3:57:36 PM