Chance Webster – [Systems Engineer]
On October 10, 2017, Microsoft will officially retire all editions of Office 2007. What does this mean for you? Microsoft will no longer offer updates or provide free or paid support for the Office 2007 family of products. If you have not upgraded the Office suite for one or more of your PCs, this would be the perfect time to consider a more recent version of Microsoft Office.
One reason to upgrade is that newer versions of Microsoft platforms such as Exchange and SharePoint will not interact with the Office 2007 platform. Also, newer versions of Office do not interact properly or at all with older, unsupported platforms. For example, Outlook 2016 does not work with Exchange 2007 – which is 3 versions lower in the Office family. Likewise, Outlook 2007 does not connect to either Exchange 2016 or Exchange Online. Both of these concerns could add more unplanned costs when planning for an on-premises Exchange or SharePoint upgrade project.
Another reason to upgrade is based on Microsoft’s policy change concerning Office 365 and Microsoft Office in the future. The good news is this policy change does not fully take effect until October 13, 2020, so there is time to consider your upgrade options related to your on-premises infrastructure or any cloud initiatives. For more detail, please see this policy change here: https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/04/20/office-365-proplus-updates/.
The following are alternatives to consider:
For more information about how Keller Schroeder can assist your organization with migrating to Office 365, please contact your Select Account Manager.