>>The stability is nowadays only in Word & Excel, Access is loosing ground IMHO
>>[albeit me reading today about IT loosing the battle against Excel&Access due to speed in getting business processes implemented]
>>Outlook is becoming the Notes of this century over here due to smartphone fragmentation - WP7/WinArm must fight here IMHO.
>>
>
>Access is a distant side topic to most business users. Word and Excel are huge.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/IT-verliert-Kontrolle-ueber-Geschaeftsprozesse-1244454.html

is the article I mentioned. they cite business process split 3 way in equal terms between excel, access and traditional biz proces SW like [sap,oracle]. Haven't checked methodology - was surprized myself.
I could drop/exchange Word in a second if functionality was in question. The crux is document exchange re owning the format.
I'm using Word 97 most of the time, even if I installed other versions on different machines as well.
That version still has the license to install on any of MY machines and no hassles with keys and stuff, loads faster and has more functionality than I ever need. I bought more stuff from MS, but on word processing for me the newer versions were mostly more bloated with no benefit to me.
Outlook keeping users inside exchange is becoming more trouble than a help - like notes earlier.

Excel is a different story. But even Lotus was gone 1-2-3...

regards

thomas