14 DAY TRIAL // Redmond-based technology giant Microsoft has agreed to implement the open document format (ODC) in its cloud-based Office 365 productivity service, after months of negotiations with the UK government.
The United Kingdom decided last year to adopt ODF as the standardized document format instead of Microsoft’s XML despite pressure coming from the software giant, which has contracts with state departments and provides software and services, including Office and Office 365.
After having replaced XML with ODF, it was pretty clear that Microsoft wasn’t exactly satisfied with the new direction adopted by the British government, but after months of negotiations during which UK authorities never gave up, the software giant has finally decided to implement ODF support in Office 365.
“While we already have great ODF support in O365, we’ve worked with GDS to understand the need to be able to create or import a document in another format and export it as ODF 1.2 and will be rolling out this new functionality to Office 365 in May,” Microsoft said in a statement today.
“These changes ensure that Microsoft Office 365 will be compliant with the policy for sharing and collaborating on government documents and available for all public sector organisations.”
Microsoft wasn’t pleased with ODF adoption
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft wasn’t the biggest supporter of UK’s ODF adoption, with company representatives criticizing the government for switching from its own solution to the open document format, a decision that would obviously impact its business in the country.
Microsoft explained that such a change would affect not only the UK government but every single citizen of the country, pointing out that dumping Office formats would lead to increased costs and dissatisfaction, as well as difficulty in performing a number of familiar tasks.
Redmond went on to say that it wanted both XML and ODF to be supported by the government, explaining that giving more flexibility to everyone in the country, including businesses and users, would be the best way to support the industry.