Lotus Symphony Shipped Standard with Copies of Lotus Notes

To the delight of many, IBM has announced that they will ship a copy of Lotus Symphony version 1.3 with every copy of Lotus Notes and Lotus Foundations.  Yet, what exactly is Lotus Symphony?

According to a press release, Lotus Symphony is an alternative to Microsoft Office, which will allow millions of companies and consumers to save hundreds of dollars.  Not only does this cost-free software provide support for Microsoft Office 2007, but it allows users to drag and drop plug-ins, extending its use to other business applications.

The vice president of Lotus Software, Kevin Cavanaugh, said, “IBM is delivering on its commitment to free businesses and consumers from having to pay licensing fees over and over just to access their own personal or company information.  Now, it will be much harder to justify paying Office licensing fees when you can preserve and access your Office documents for free using Lotus Symphony.”

So far, the plan has received high praises.  In fact, Mark Clemence, the IT Director for Cluttons, stated, “The opportunity to use fully supported office productivity tools as part of the deployment of Lotus Notes 8.5 was too good an opportunity to be missed.  We plan to use the cost saving to further invest in Lotus productivity tool sets.”