Sun eyes MS Office share with StarOffice 6.0

Sun is eyeing the office suite segment with a new pricing strategy for the

latest version of StarOffice 6.0 released a few months ago. The earlier version

of StarOffice was available as a free download. But, the latest release is

priced at Rs 4,300 per license, which includes support and training. At this

price StarOffice is still a lot cheaper than the most widely-accepted

Microsoft's Office suite.

KP Unnikrishnan, Country Head - Marketing, Sun Microsystems India, says,

"In the last one-and-a-half months, we have installed about 400 suites. We

are also talking to the Government of Karnataka for the use of StarOffice across

300 schools in the state."

While,

Sun is aggressively promoting this product in the education and government

sectors, low awareness among users a well as compatibility and integrity issues,

have failed to evoke the much-needed demand for it. Partners from across the

country have given mixed response to the sales patterns in last two months after

the new pricing strategy was announced.

Venkatachalapathi, MD, Vikas Microchip says, “Despite stable buying trends

of Office XP’s Home as well as Professional editions, several SMEs have

migrated to StarOffice due to pricing and legality issues.”

Similar buying trend has been observed by Vinod G, MD, Arcamax Computers.

According to him, the decline in demand for Office XP can be attributed to

Microsoft’s new licensing policies, which pushed several enterprises to switch

to freeware such as StarOffice during the past quarter.

V Shekar Avasthy, Senior Analyst, Internet and software/service research, IDC

India also shares the same opinion. According to him, the assurance licensing

program of Microsoft will further strengthen the perception of the Office XP

being expensive. "This will certainly boost StarOffice more," he adds.

Anil Kumar Singh, GM, Lampo Computers is optimistic about StarOffice. He

points out that the key accelerator for any office suite is not only price but

also features and acceptance. According to him, awareness about StarOffice's

features is low; as a result, adoption levels have not increased despite its

competitive pricing. He feels that the new pricing policy will help Sun increase

its acceptance at the organizational level as the pressure from Nasscom on

pirated software will push enterprises to seriously consider going in for

StarOffice.

However, Premal Nanavati, Regional Manager of Fiona Infosystems finds the

sale of StarOffice even with the new pricing not very encouraging. He could sell

only 15 units in the last two months. According to him, whatever little buying

that is happening is from small businesses who have become serious about using

legal software, and have a small budget.

Says Premal, "I have not met any user who have said that I am happy

using StarOffice. It is not perfectly designed to work efficiently with the

Windows operating system."

On a similar note, Ujwal Andhari of Softcell Technologies says, "StarOffice

will not be a sweeping success. The question is whether Sun is prepared to have

the kind of commitment that Microsoft has in terms of marketing their

product?"

Sun has appointed 10 authorized Sun education centers. Currently, StarOffice

suites are distributed through Sun’s present channel network, which includes

Tech Pacific, HCL Infosystems and Wipro Infotech. "We are also planing to

recruit dedicated regional distributors and resellers for distribution of

StarOffice Suites," says Unnikrishnan. According to him, Sun is working on

a detailed cost analyses which also covers channel margins.

SUNILA PAUL With inputs from NELSON JOHNY in Mumbai