Office 2013 to Office 2016 - Worth the Upgrade?

[adamholt1]

Exactly that.

 

Currently Office 2013 site wide. Is it worth the upgrade to go to Office 2016 yet?

 

I've installed it on my laptop and can't see many differences. Done a bit of research on it and again can't really spot any amazing must have features in it?

 

Any opinions on it?

 

I do however like to have the new shiny stuff!!!!

 

thankyou!

[themightymrp]

I've got pretty much the same situation as you - 2013 across the site but 2016 on my PC. I like some of the new features (the help search bar and the recent files dropdown when attaching documents to emails), but nothing is earth-shattering enough to make me want to upgrade everyone. And my Outlook does seem to crash randomly twice a week, it didn't do that on 2013......

[psydii]

I'm just playing with it myself. Keeping step with Office365 is the most compelling 'feature' for me so far.

 

It is so similar in look and feel to 2013, and the rollout/upgrade path seems so straightforward that I am struggling to come up with a reason not to roll it out quickly.

 

Google, Apple and Microsoft have moved to a rapid release/iterative schedule. As system administrators we need to think now in these terms too. Trying to stick with the 1990/2000's servicing and model will leave us as dinosaurs.

 

I could push it out this afternoon. I'm not going to, but I wouldn't be surprised if I roll it out by the summer during one of our regular 'patch Tuesday' update windows.

[adamholt1]

I've got pretty much the same situation as you - 2013 across the site but 2016 on my PC. I like some of the new features (the help search bar and the recent files dropdown when attaching documents to emails), but nothing is earth-shattering enough to make me want to upgrade everyone. And my Outlook does seem to crash randomly twice a week, it didn't do that on 2013......

 

 

Yes that is only feature I have found to be of benefit so far!! The drop down of recent files when attaching a file.

[adamholt1]

I'm just playing with it myself. Keeping step with Office365 is the most compelling 'feature' for me so far.

 

It is so similar in look and feel to 2013, and the rollout/upgrade path seems so straightforward that I am struggling to come up with a reason not to roll it out quickly.

 

Google, Apple and Microsoft have moved to a rapid release/iterative schedule. As system administrators we need to think now in these terms too. Trying to stick with the 1990/2000's servicing and model will leave us as dinosaurs.

 

I could push it out this afternoon. I'm not going to, but I wouldn't be surprised if I roll it out by the summer during one of our regular 'patch Tuesday' update windows.

 

 

Yes agree with you there. Always need to be upgrading. Just half of me thinks almost 'whats the point'.

 

Likewise, I will more than likely upgrade it during the holidays. Probably Easter for me. But just thought I'd see if people were of the same opinion as myself

[Michael]

I include Office 2016 Pro on all Windows 10 images, but in saying that, this was upgrading from Office 2010 on all Windows 7 images, skipping Office 2013 altogether.

 

I'd say Office 2016 is slightly more optimised than Office 2013, but other than this, I agree there isn't a huge difference.

 

I guess installing the latest/greatest version of Office future proofs it to a point and then the cycle continues when Microsoft release the next version of Office. I'd say it's quite common practice to skip a version of Office, but if were planning on re-imaging (even with Windows 7), I would include Office 2016.

[googlemad]

Meanwhile, we're still stuck on Office 2007

 

The excuse I always get is 'our teaching books have screenshots from 2007!'.

[Michael]

Meanwhile, we're still stuck on Office 2007

 

The excuse I always get is 'our teaching books have screenshots from 2007!'.

 

Well you have until the end of 2017 until support runs out. Maybe worth mentioning that That would be a huge jump to Office 2016!

[RichCowell]

Exactly that.

 

Currently Office 2013 site wide. Is it worth the upgrade to go to Office 2016 yet?

 

I've installed it on my laptop and can't see many differences. Done a bit of research on it and again can't really spot any amazing must have features in it?

 

Any opinions on it?

 

I do however like to have the new shiny stuff!!!!

 

thankyou!

 

It's often an issue with SIMS Support, with SIMS not supporting newer versions of Office for quite a while after they're released - I know you use Integris there, but I know nothing about how that works, so could be worth checking with them to see if it's supported...

[gshaw]

Was looking at 2016 on our Windows 10 tablets but there's an SSO bug with O365 that's holding us back from deploying it in that scenario.

 

On desktops the crashing 2013 has made us consider upgrading but no concrete plans yet

[Sagima]

It's so similar to office 2013 that we have no objections to people having it although it's voluntary at the moment in case there is some problem that we haven't come across yet. It will probably skip the summer refresh but be included on the post-summer image updates so its rollout is gradual.

[mthomas08]

We not long went to Office 2013, I'm more than happy to stay on this for at least another 18 months or close as possible till M$ pull the plug.

 

Maybe when we consider leaving W7 and going to W10 we will have a Office 2016 but Capita/SIMs must support it completely till we do.

[rich_tech]

One thing to mention - Office 2016 will not work with older exchange server versions, I found that out here.

 

If its Exchange 2007 and earlier forget it, it wont connect in to those servers, though google suggested a lot of possible fixes.

 

(I don't control our exchange here, its an LEA thing and in the process of being upgraded by them, now they have EES in place)

Edited January 26, 2016 by rich_tech