Credit: Shutterstock photoSoftware developer Microsoft CorporationMSFT rolled out Office 2016, the updated version of its venerable productivity suite. The new versions of apps like Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook are now available worldwide for Windows desktop customers. Users can now buy copies of the software in stores and online.
Market analysts see the new Office as an overhaul of Microsoft's chief franchise for business, designed and built for the mobile, cloud and social era.
New Features
Office 2016 comes with a number of changes but the most prominent one is its focus on collaboration. It is designed to allow several people to work together on documents and includes a "Groups" segment that enables people to easily collaborate on projects.
For the collaboration effort, it offers Office 365 Planner, which provides work teams a central location to develop plans, allot tasks, schedule deadlines, and post status updates, using a dashboard and email notifications. This new planning tool will be available to Office 365 users in preview in the October-December quarter.
Office 2016 also includes tools for sharing documents and syncing files with the cloud and offers improved file size and volume limits per user as part of OneDrive for Business, Office's cloud storage tool. It also offers improved corporate email security via multi-factor authentication.
It also offers Skype in-app integration across the well-off client apps which will enable users to IM, screen share, chat or video call in the docs itself.
It also introduces a "Tell Me" tool to Word, Excel and others that enables users to quickly find a feature or command instead of searching Office's mesh of menus. It also added improvements to Outlook that enables prioritizing vital emails and automatic removal of low-priority mail. The new Office 2016 apps are available in 40 languages and need Windows 7 or later versions.
Price
Microsoft had announced Office 2016 in January and unveiled the first preview for Windows in March for free.
To have the final product, users will either have to purchase an Office 365 subscription, starting at $6.99 per month (Office 365 Personal) or $9.99 per month (Office 365 Home) and get new features and updates as and when they are rolled out. And for existing subscribers of Office 365 service, their applications will be automatically updated in the coming weeks.
Alternatively, users can purchase the software through a one-time purchase. While Office Home & Student version costs $149; the Office Home & Business version costs $229.
Conclusion
Enterprise customers are greatly dependent on Microsoft Office. Earlier, Microsoft limited Office to Windows devices, hoping to spur Windows sales. But this strategy was changed as it resulted in lost opportunity on Apple AAPL and Google GOOGL powered devices and helped them popularize competing software. So the company announced Office 365 for everyone, a cross-platform approach that solved this issue.
Office 2016 with its collaboration-focused features will also take care of business needs of enterprises of varied sizes. So it will keep its customers hooked on to its ecosystem and keep Office competition away.
Microsoft currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked technology stock is Amazon.com AMZN , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days . Click to get this free report >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
AMAZON.COM INC (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report
APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
MICROSOFT CORP (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report
GOOGLE INC-CL A (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
