update Western Australia's Department for Community Development (DCD) will brave the early adopter stigma and upgrade at least part of its desktop fleet to Microsoft's new Office 2007 suite.
The department is responsible for providing a number of family and community-oriented services to the state, including child protection, youth support, foster care and family support and counselling. It had more than 1,600 employees as at 30 June last year.
Western Australia's contracts disclosure system recently revealed that DCD purchased some 230 Microsoft Office Professional 2007 licences from reseller and integrator Commander at a total cost of AU$117,705 -- or AU$511 each.
Neither the department nor Commander responded to a request for comment by press time. Most chief information officers and IT managers polled by ZDNet Australia in the last six months have indicated there was no compelling business case to upgrade to Office 2007 and Windows Vista.
Microsoft's Information Worker division director Tony Wilkinson told ZDNet Australia the software giant was pleased with the local uptake of Office 2007. "Sales of the 2007 Office System have been strong across all market sectors," he claimed.
Its interesting to see that this department has recently been given a substantial increase in its budget. Obviously they have more that they know what to do with and are spending before the end of the financial year. I hope the Treasury is watching...