[Design] MS Office 2003 beta to launch next week

[Selva]

<snip> Another new product, code named Iris, will be Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager. Like OneNote and InfoPath, Iris reached only a small number of testers during Beta 1. The new version of Outlook will add customer relationship management (CRM) features that could appeal to small- and medium-sized businesses.

Paul DeGroot, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, said the new features would encroach on some software developers’ territory. “Microsoft has been doing more of that recently with their business intelligence products and CRM."

Businesses would benefit from being able to replace more expensive, entry-level CRM software with the new version of Outlook. "As you remove a layer of business, you remove a layer of cost, which plays to Microsoft's strengths," DeGroot said.

In general, Outlook is the most overhauled application in the new Office suite. Microsoft has moved the preview pane from the bottom of the screen to the right, so messages appear like full-page documents. The company also scrapped the Outlook Bar and beefed up security features.

Outlook 2003 also offers two antispam tools. By default, the program does not display images contained in Web-based e-mail messages; it is not uncommon for the messages to contain so-called Web beacons used by spammers to check the validity of an e-mail address. The second tool is a "Junk E-mail" filter that can delete spam or move it to a special folder. </snip>

http://news.com.com/2100-1012-991043.html

--Selva