Microsoft has a "new" office -- and it isn't in a building and it isn't a word processing/spreadsheet suite. The "new" office is Microsoft Office System 2003, a comprehensive set of programs, servers and services. It goes far beyond the traditional productivity applications such as word processing and email, incorporating live meetings, document management, design and portals.

To the casual observer, it might appear that Microsoft Office System 2003 is simply a collection of legacy Microsoft products -- now sharing a common "Office" brand. However, a thorough review reveals that Office System has the makings of a coordinated set of tools that, when implemented, can have a positive impact on enterprise productivity. It also represents a substantive change for Microsoft, as it sets out to meet a different set of customer requirements and challenges than the company has faced in the past.

From the 1960s on, the term "office systems" was commonly used to denote "systems for the office." For example, IBM's Office Systems Division sold typewriters, dictation machines and word processors.

One thing has not changed from the days of the quill to the typewriter, and adding machine to the word processor and spreadsheet: the nature of output created by the knowledge worker. Much work is individually created and then shared, and while tools may have changed, the work product has not.

The term "virtual office" has been cited as a goal since the 1980s, and connotes several attributes including paperless, automated, and location independent. What was missing to a great extent was an environment to tie together the tools that knowledge workers use to carry out their work.

Enter Microsoft. Microsoft resurrected the term "Office System" in its new Collaborative Business Knowledge offering. Seeking to leverage the ubiquity of its Office productivity suite, which includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and email tools, it might appear to the casual observer that Office System 2003 is merely a collection of these products along with portal and conferencing plugged in.

Nothing could be further from the truth: a detailed review of Microsoft Office System 2003 reveals that this is a new offering featuring a coordinated set of collaborative business knowledge tools companies can use to deploy true collaborative business environments.