Office 2019 Desktop Servicing Details Start to Emerge

• The next version of Microsoft Office is scheduled to ship in late 2018.
• Desktop images and deployment processes may need redesign for Office 2019.
• Adoption of Office 2016 could require additional upgrades, notably to Windows 10.
• The support life cycle of Office 2019 is shortened, potentially indicating the end of perpetual licenses.

The coming release of Office 2019 changes some deployment and servicing details from previous versions, and adoption of the new software could trigger—or be the result of—a domino effect of upgrades. Customers will need to carefully evaluate their current software and hosted subscription licenses to determine whether moving to Office 2019 is necessary to maintain support, whether it will provide additional benefits to users, and whether it will require significant additional upgrades to platform software.

Desktop Office Servicing Updated

Office 2019 will coordinate the release of the next perpetually licensed version of the desktop productivity software suite with new versions of on-premises server applications, including SharePoint, Exchange, and Skype for Business. The desktop suite and its applications such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook are likely to see relatively minor functional changes from its predecessor, Office 2016. For example, Word should receive some new ink-related features, and Excel should see some new formulas and chart types.