A new version of Microsoft’s platform for real-time communication, Communications Server 2007, was released to volume license customers in Sept. 2007. As did its predecessors, the product maintains users’ presence information, lets users send instant messages (IMs) and make voice and video calls, and allows organizations to provide on-premise Web conferencing services similar to those offered by the Microsoft-hosted Live Meeting service.

Office Suite and Visio

Microsoft’s most widely used client application for business, the Office suite, supports document editing, data access, e-mail, presentations, and collaboration. The Office suite and the Visio business diagramming product received major releases in 2006. These versions do not require Windows Vista, but they do require Windows XP SP2 or later, and thus are not supported on Windows 2000.

(For a graphical overview of recent and upcoming business application releases, including the Office suite, OneNote, Groove, and Visio, see the illustration “Office and Visio Overview“. For an overview of earlier Office versions, including service pack release history and life cycle support dates, see the chart “Past Office Versions“.)

The Office suite, Exchange Server, and Lync Server (renamed Skype for Business Server) will all have received updates by the end of 2015. SharePoint Server and Project Server will probably receive updates in mid-2016. The two waves of on-premises software versions will incorporate some of the recent and planned improvements of Microsoft’s Office 365 hosted services and subscription software. (See the illustration “Office 365 Software and Services“.)

The next versions of SharePoint and Project Server are in preview. These versions will require recent or planned versions of Windows Server and SQL Server, so many organizations will have to upgrade infrastructure to deploy them on-premises. (See the illustration “Application Versions Supported on Recent Platforms“.)

Office Clients

The Office suites for Windows are Microsoft’s most widely used client applications for business. They enable document editing, data access and manipulation, e-mail, presentation, and collaboration on Windows PCs. The most important suites for large organizations are Office Professional Plus, Office Standard, and Office 365 ProPlus. Office Professional Plus and Office Standard, licensed Per Device, are available through volume licensing programs exclusively. The Office 365 ProPlus suite is sold on a Per-User subscription basis and consists of the same applications as Office Professional Plus. Office Professional Plus 2016 suites start with the same features as Office 365 ProPlus, but will diverge over time as the Office 365 ProPlus suite receives additional updates and new features. These suites include combinations of the following applications: