IBM Unveils New Symphony For MS Office Customers

IBM is offering companies and consumers a chance to save dollars on each of their Microsoft Office licences by providing support for Microsoft Office 2007 with the newest version of Lotus Symphony, IBM’s free-of-charge productivity software suite.

The ability to import Microsoft Office 2007 files into Symphony means that Microsoft Office customers can save on licencing costs by switching to Symphony while retaining access to, and easy use of, the contents of their Office files. Lotus Symphony version 1.3 is now available free of charge on the Web at http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/symphony/ . In addition, Symphony is shipped with every copy of Lotus Notes and Lotus Foundations software.

IBM’s alternative to Microsoft Office 2007 makes cost-free document software a legitimate option for many companies around the business world, which want to realise cost-efficiencies in the current economic climate.

In addition to adding support for Microsoft Office 2007 file formats, Lotus Symphony 1.3 offers DataPilot Table improvements that make it easy to drill down and analyse data. It also enhances mail merge and envelope printing for organisations that need efficient ways to communicate with their customers. Symphony 1.3 also provides animation to add sizzle to presentations and interoperate with Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

The new version of Symphony allows users to drag-and-drop plug-ins, extending its use to other business applications. For example, a new learning plug-in can be installed on the right sidebar to help people learn new Symphony capabilities in real-time use.