Refusing to divulge more details as the technology is yet to be unveiled formally, he said users would have to get connected to a registration server which in turn would provide a binary installation key. ``This is being targeted at the end-users while in the case of large users we are thinking of having a new licencing agreement.'' The technology is an extension of the Windows update which was released along with Windows '98, he said.

As far as the release of the product is concerned, he opined that currently it is at a Beta 2 stage. The product will be shipped around April next year, he added. As far as India is concerned, currently trials are on with various users. ``Trials arebeing conducted with over 60 corporates. Tata Infotech and Integra Solutions are taking an active role in trial deployments of Office 2000. There are currently over one million users of Office in India and an installed base of two billion PCs. India thus is one of the most important countries for us,'' says Stenson.

The company is also planning to have roadshows and seminars to popularise the product. For the first time it is also planning to have a customer interaction wherein the product will be demonstrated, Stenson added.

Among the salient features of Office 2000 is that it has a web enabled collaboration and information sharing. Office 2000 makes it easy for anyone to publish information on the web at the same time helping to transform the web into a central work environment for collaboration and communication. With HTML as a companion file format it makes it easier for universal viewing and natural authoring apart from ease of creation and publishing of web pages.

The rich analysis tool for betterdecision making helps in connection users to enterprise data and enable simple rich web-based solutions. The main feature is, however, improved personalised productivity, self-repairing applications and a global application suite, says Stenson.

Office 2000 is also designed to reduce the cost of owning a PC in the enterprise. The new technology in the software makes it more flexible and easier to install thereby eliminating need for multiple installations. ``In Office 2000 each user's preference automatically migrate forward from previous version, thus eliminating need for a user or the help desk personnel to re-customise the interface during the migration period, he added.

Business competitiveness has become increasingly dependent on the ability to react quickly to changing business environments. As a result organisations need desktop applications that reduce costs and foster collaboration.