Are the new features worth it, given the cost and the disruption of installing a new version of Office? Office 2013 certainly means disruption, with a new interface designed to fit in with the flat, digital-first look of Windows 8 and Metro, and the new features across the wide range of programs, while certainly useful, may not on their own add up to a good reason to upgrade.

Here’s an overview – Basically, Office 2013 takes the idea of Office 365 to the logical extreme. If you could survive the transition to Ribbon menus in Office 2007, you’ll quickly feel at home. The Ribbon is, indeed, still the keystone of the Office experience.

This particular version of Office is not tied to Windows. You can upload the software on up to five different PC’s or Mac’s per person – which means it’s easier to buy Office for a business that mixes Mac’s and PC’s. Additionally, the licence also gives you access to Office client apps on your mobile devices.

You’ve heard of “the cloud” right? It is the name given to applications that “live” on the internet. Being able to save to the cloud is hardly a new feature in Office, but for the first time saving to SkyDrive is the default, not the C Drive. And when you do hit save, you’ll even see a progress bar on the bottom of the screen, confirming your latest draft made it safely to the cloud.

It’s fast enough that if you end up borrowing a PC that doesn’t already have Office, you can stream office 2013 onto it in a few minutes – complete with your settings and recent document links ready to start work. Additionally the flexibility allows businesses to give employees the rights to Office and then revoke it at a later date, should they need to. So an employee can have the full version of Office on their own personal PC so they’re never stuck because they can’t open a key document.

The moderate number of improved features in the individual apps may put some businesses off moving to Office 2013, but getting away from the current two or three year replacement cycle, where businesses lose out on new features by delaying upgrades and losing time to complex deployments may prove a major advantage for many businesses, and hence makes the new version of Office one that’s well worth considering.

If you would like to learn more about software that may or may not benefit your business, click here to contact Troy Marchant.