[Ecommerce] FYI: WordPerfect for Justice Department

[Manon Ress]

They could have switched to open office (OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta at
http://www.openoffice.org/)
Manon

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/2005/03/07/952949.html

WASHINGTON (AP) =97 The Justice Department, which challenged Microsoft
Corp. in courtrooms for nearly a decade over antitrust violations, will
pay more than $2 million each year to buy business software from Corel
Corp., a leading Microsoft rival.

The new purchase agreement, announced Monday, makes the latest version
of Corel=92s WordPerfect Office software available to more than 50,000
lawyers and other Justice employees.

That includes the department=92s antitrust division, which successfully
sued Microsoft over illegal efforts to dominate the software industry
but negotiated a settlement later to end the company=92s court appeals.

The deal, worth up $13.2 million over five years for Ontario-based
Corel, illustrates that Microsoft, the world=92s largest software company,
still faces pockets of intense competition in the industry it dominates.
It also represents a high-profile sale for Corel among lawyers, where it
traditionally has enjoyed a loyal following.

=93It=92s a big win for them,=94 said Joe Wilcox, a software analyst for
Jupiter Media. =93The Justice Department is kind of a showcase agency.=94

Corel=92s chief executive, Amish Mehta, said the software sale was among
the company=92s largest worldwide. Corel is initially charging the
government $40 per copy to upgrade from an earlier WordPerfect version
to its newest software, the government said.

Privately held Corel does not disclose sales figures. Microsoft sold
$2.8 billion worth of its Office software programs in the final three
months of 2004.

The Justice Department will make WordPerfect software available to more
than 20 organizations inside the agency, but not the FBI or Drug
Enforcement Administration, which use Microsoft=92s Office business
software exclusively, said Mary Aileen O=92Donovan, a program manager in
the Justice Management Division.

She said when the department considered its purchase, it was acutely
aware of its courtroom struggles against Microsoft. Until last month,
Justice employees used rival Web browsing software from the former
Netscape Communications Corp., O=92Donovan said.

=93We picked the underdog,=94 she said.

O=92Donovan said U.S. courts require all electronic filings to be
submitted as WordPerfect documents, and Justice has thousands of
programmed shortcuts designed to work with WordPerfect.

Still, the department hardly rejects all Microsoft products. It also
buys the company=92s Office software =97 for roughly $150 per copy =97 and
pays more for its Windows operating system, O=92Donovan said.

She said Justice also is urging employees to switch to Microsoft=92s
Internet Explorer Web browser, which was the subject of the government=92s
antitrust case.


--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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