SHARE
Facebook X Pinterest WhatsApp

IBM to Sell Support for Rival to Microsoft Office

BOSTON (Reuters) – IBM will offer help desk service for its Symphony line of software, raising the competition with rival Microsoft Corp’s suite of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The programs from International Business Machines Corp have been available for free on its Web site since September 2007, but businesses can now buy contracts for help […]

Jun 3, 2008
Channel Insider content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

BOSTON (Reuters) – IBM will offer help desk service for its
Symphony line of software, raising the competition with rival Microsoft
Corp’s suite of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

The programs from International Business Machines Corp have been
available for free on its Web site since September 2007, but businesses
can now buy contracts for help desk support for a flat fee of $25,000
per year, IBM said on Tuesday.

Companies and home users that don’t want that support can continue
to obtain the word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software
for free.

It is the latest challenge to Microsoft Corp’s Office, which faces
new competition from companies such as Google Inc and as well as free
collaboratively developed software such as OpenOffice.

Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Nucleus Research, said that
businesses are likely to give the IBM programs a serious look, just as
they have other Office rivals, including Google’s Web based offering.

Google also sells support for its programs that rival Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Wettemann, whose firm advises companies on how to cut costs on
computers and software, said IBM may have a tough time convincing
businesses to pay for support of the relatively easy-to-use programs in
Symphony.

"Why do I need support for documents and spreadsheets?" she said.

The software is available at symphony.lotus.com.

© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved.
Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for
their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or
redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or
similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written
consent of Thomson Reuters.

 

Recommended for you...

Keepit Achieves SOC 2 Type 1 & Canadian Ingram Micro Deal
Jordan Smith
Aug 20, 2025
AI Customer Service Fails to Satisfy Consumer Needs: Verizon
Franklin Okeke
Aug 19, 2025
GoTo Pulse Survey Shows AI Promise, Highlights Gaps to Fill
Victoria Durgin
Aug 19, 2025
Deepgram Teams With AWS on Voice AI Deployment
Jordan Smith
Aug 19, 2025
Channel Insider Logo

Channel Insider combines news and technology recommendations to keep channel partners, value-added resellers, IT solution providers, MSPs, and SaaS providers informed on the changing IT landscape. These resources provide product comparisons, in-depth analysis of vendors, and interviews with subject matter experts to provide vendors with critical information for their operations.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.