Forsyth County Schools serves a rapidly growing student population near Atlanta, Georgia, with a longtime commitment to academic and technology innovation. Facing tightened budgets in late 2008, the district decided to move away from its longtime use of Microsoft Office and deploy OpenOffice to some 20,000 computers, but with this deployment a number of compatibility problems stymied productivity. After just over a year, the district returned to Microsoft Office, with an initial deployment of Microsoft Office 2007 as a transition step in a larger move to Microsoft Office 2010. Now, tasks that took hours in OpenOffice are completed in just minutes, teachers are making optimal use of a powerful learning management system, administrators are doing the same with line-of-business applications and databases, and students are working more efficiently in and out of the classroom.

1. Microsoft Office System
Customer Solution Case Study
School District Scraps Open-Source Solution,
Boosts Productivity by 50 Percent
Overview “When we returned to Microsoft Office after our
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Education experience with OpenOffice, you could practically hear
a collective sigh of relief, across the entire district.”
Customer Profile
Forsyth County Schools has 4,500 Bailey Mitchell, Chief Information Officer, Forsyth County Schools
employees and serves more than 35,000
students at 35 elementary, middle, and
high schools; at additional alternative Forsyth County Schools serves a rapidly growing student
and charter schools; and in special
programs.
population near Atlanta, Georgia, with a longtime commitment
to academic and technology innovation. Facing tightened
Business Situation
After replacing a longtime Microsoft
budgets in late 2008, the district decided to move away from its
Office installation with OpenOffice, the longtime use of Microsoft Office and deploy OpenOffice to
district struggled with compatibility
problems that hindered productivity.
some 20,000 computers, but with this deployment a number of
compatibility problems stymied productivity. After just over a
Solution
Forsyth County Schools decided to return
year, the district returned to Microsoft Office, with an initial
to a Microsoft Office roadmap, with an deployment of Microsoft Office 2007 as a transition step in a
immediate deployment of Microsoft
Office 2007 and plans for a subsequent
larger move to Microsoft Office 2010. Now, tasks that took hours
deployment of Microsoft Office 2010. in OpenOffice are completed in just minutes, teachers are
Benefits
making optimal use of a powerful learning management system,
 Personal productivity up by 50 percent administrators are doing the same with line-of-business
 Optimal use of applications and
databases
applications and databases, and students are working more
 Efficient working environment efficiently in and out of the classroom.
 Powerful positioning for the future

2. “Teachers were eager to Situation pressure to reduce licensing costs, the
Forsyth County Schools educates more district took a different approach, with an
convert some key than 35,000 students in a 413-square-mile initiative to implement an open-source
area roughly 30 miles north of Atlanta, solution. Through that initiative, the district
content and learning Georgia. While serving a rapidly expanding replaced Office 2003 with OpenOffice
activities for use in the student population in one of the fastest- software on some 20,000 computers at
growing counties in the United States, the schools, district offices, and students‟ and
[learning management] district has earned accolades as a state and teachers‟ homes.
national leader in academics. For example,
system, but performance numerous schools in the district have been Over time, however, that initiative failed to
and compatibility issues named among the “Georgia Schools of yield the desired results, according to Bailey
Excellence” by the state‟s Department of Mitchell, Chief Information Officer, Forsyth
frustrated their efforts. Education, and in 2010 one of the district‟s County Schools. “Problems with
high schools was included in Newsweek compatibility, which barely registered
With OpenOffice, we had magazine‟s “Top of the Class” list of some during our pilot deployment, grew to
thrown a monkey 1,600 high schools throughout the United enormous proportions once we deployed
States. into production,” he says. “Our power users
wrench into the process.” could no longer easily open documents
Forsyth County Schools also has earned containing macros or specialized
Bailey Mitchell, Chief Information Officer,
Forsyth County Schools multiple state and national awards for its formatting, import forms with drop-down
leadership in technology innovation, menus, or produce content for our learning
including a 2010 “Investing in Innovation” management system. They were delayed or
grant from the U.S. Department of prevented from performing business-
Education, recognizing the district‟s intelligence analyses using data from our
pioneering use of information technology student information system, opening data
to support collaboration in the classroom files from the state‟s department of
and beyond. Since 2005, all Forsyth County education and external agencies, or doing
Schools classrooms have used interactive almost anything that involved HTML or XLS
whiteboards and web-based streaming files. The problems just went on and on.”
audio and video applications to enhance
the teaching of math, language arts, and As a result, productivity plummeted, and
other core subjects. Teachers rely on not just among power users. “Students,
electronic portfolios to support group teachers, administrators, and support staff
projects and track student progress, and across the board, from financial analysts to
share activities and assessments through an bus-route schedulers, wasted time and
online repository of tools. Teachers also effort trying to use OpenOffice in our
have access to a powerful learning environment,” Mitchell says. “People were
management system implemented spending 30 to 50 percent more time than
districtwide to further enhance creativity they had in the past to create and modify
and collaboration. documents—activities that constitute the
staple of the work or school day.”
Another component of the IT toolset at
Forsyth County Schools is the Microsoft These productivity problems were
Office suite, which the district first used especially troublesome because around the
widely starting in the mid-1990s and same time that Forsyth County Schools
continuing into late 2008. At that time, moved to OpenOffice, the district also was
when the economic downturn increased ramping up use of its learning

3. “I am accomplishing a management system to better engage In early 2010, Mitchell and his team
students with a blend of traditional presented their case to the district board.
wide range of tasks… in classroom content and online instructional “Because board members had heard the
materials. “Teachers were eager to convert same arguments already from teachers,
just minutes, instead of some key content and learning activities for principals, administrators, parents, just
the hours these tasks use in the online system, but performance about everyone, their response was
and compatibility issues frustrated their overwhelmingly positive,” Mitchell says.
sometimes took in efforts,” Mitchell says. “With OpenOffice, “And for their part, the principals were so
we had thrown a monkey wrench into the excited to be moving back to Microsoft
OpenOffice. Considering process.” Office that they reached into their own
that I‟m just one of activity accounts to purchase licenses for
Yet another problem affected students who their teachers, while the district set out to
thousands of users were trying to complete assignments on cover the costs for students and staff.”
their home computers—a problem that
throughout the district, troubled their parents as well. “After That left only the question of which
that‟s a productivity gain watching their child struggle in OpenOffice Microsoft Office release to deploy. Mitchell
to access otherwise familiar documents, explains that as much as he and others
that is hard to fathom.” parents would express their frustration to were eager to put new Office 2010
the teachers, who relayed these grievances capabilities to use, matters of timing and
Jeff Hunt, Principal, North Middle School
to the principals,” according to Jeff Hunt, urgency required a slightly different
Principal, North Middle School. approach. “At the time, the release of Office
“Dissatisfaction with OpenOffice was 2010 was some months in the future,” he
everywhere.” explains. “Considering our funding and
hardware-refresh cycles, and the growing
Solution excitement surrounding the move, we
After meeting with Hunt and more than 30 decided to go ahead with a deployment of
other principals over the course of a year, Microsoft Office 2007 and plan for an
Mitchell and his team decided it was time upgrade to Office 2010.”
to move Forsyth County Schools back to
the Microsoft Office suite. In addition to In a four-month period preceding the
their desire to eliminate the compatibility opening of the 2010 school year, a three-
problems surrounding OpenOffice, Mitchell person team from the district‟s office of
and his colleagues were motivated by what technology services, assisted by site-based
they were learning about the newest technology specialists, replaced OpenOffice
release of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office with Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
2010. “We especially liked the Web Apps on every one of the more than 20,000
capability of Office 2010, because we were computers installed at 35 schools and four
moving rapidly in the direction of making administrative sites. Team members used
everything we do web-facing,” Mitchell the Altiris Deployment Solution from
says. “We also were intrigued by the rich- Symantec to expedite the project, and
content authoring tools, particularly the in- through the learning management system
presentation video-editing capabilities of they provided links to free* online training
PowerPoint 2010, because video plays an tools from Microsoft for users who wanted
important role in our interactive help with the Ribbon, part of the Microsoft
whiteboard solution.” Office Fluent interface.

4. “Because sorting, As it turns out, very little training was students are working more efficiently in the
necessary for Forsyth County Schools users. classroom and on their home computers,
formatting, and table “It was such a pleasure to have Microsoft graduating seniors are better prepared for
Office back on my desk that I was happy to the world of work or college, and the
and chart creation are use the resources embedded in the toolset district itself is better able to continue its
more powerful and more and among my peer network to learn the tradition of technology innovation.
Ribbon,” says Hunt, whose experience
intuitive in Office 2007 appears to be common. “With OpenOffice, Boosting Productivity by 50 Percent
we provided every user 10 to 12 hours of With Microsoft Office back on their desktop
than in earlier versions of formal training, and still had problems,” and laptop computers, students, teachers,
the software, my own Mitchell says. “But with our return to and staff throughout Forsyth County
Microsoft Office, no one has expressed a Schools are once again devoting their time
overall productivity is up need for any formal training.” and talents to getting work done—instead
of struggling with files that won‟t open,
by 50 percent.” As for the next step in the process, the forms that won‟t work, and figures that
Sue Derison, Director of Information district will work toward its deployment of won‟t compute. “Even while learning the
Systems, Forsyth County Schools Microsoft Office 2010, a project that will new Ribbon user interface, I am
include deployment of Microsoft Exchange accomplishing a wide range of tasks—from
Server 2010 and adoption of the Microsoft formatting a text document to
Live@edu hosted communication and disaggregating districtwide student test
collaboration services. Mitchell says that he data—in just minutes, instead of the hours
and his colleagues are excited about what these tasks sometimes took in OpenOffice,”
all this will mean for Forsyth County Hunt says. “Considering that I‟m just one of
Schools. “We‟ll be using the rich-content thousands of users throughout the district,
authoring capabilities of Office 2010 to that‟s a productivity gain that is hard to
streamline our ongoing migration from fathom.”
textbooks to a predominantly online
environment, as well as the enhanced data- Perhaps nowhere is the productivity gain of
visualization features of Excel 2010 to Microsoft Office more apparent than
optimize the output of our performance among power users like Sue Derison,
and accounting systems,” Mitchell says. Director of Information Systems, Forsyth
“We‟ll also use the Live@edu offerings to County Schools, and her counterparts in
further our goal of using the software-as-a- finance, accounting, and human resources
service hosting model to enhance the who work extensively with Microsoft Excel
classroom experience.” spreadsheet software. “Office Excel 2007 is
an awesome product,” Derison says.
Benefits “Because we no longer struggle with the
“When we returned to Microsoft Office compatibility problems of OpenOffice,
after our experience with OpenOffice, you importing, exporting, and analyzing data is
could practically hear a collective sigh of one-third faster than in that environment.
relief, across the entire district,” Mitchell Moreover, because sorting, formatting, and
says. And with good reason, because table and chart creation are more powerful
Forsyth County Schools teachers, and more intuitive in Office 2007 than in
administrators, principals, and students are earlier versions of the software, my own
reporting significant gains in productivity overall productivity is up by 50 percent.”
and are making better use of IT resources
in general. In addition, teachers and

5. "Once we have installed Optimizing Technology Resources Positioning for the Future
With the move to Microsoft Office, Forsyth Now that the Microsoft Office suite is once
Office 2010, students, County Schools administrators and other again an integral part of the Forsyth County
staff are also making the most of the Schools technology roadmap, Mitchell is
teachers, administrators, comprehensive data and IT resources optimistic about what lies ahead. “With
and other staff members available to them. “We have a treasure Microsoft Office, students are using the
trove of data in our systems for accounting, desktop productivity toolset they are most
will take advantage of human resources, student information, likely to encounter in higher education and
transportation, warehousing inventory, the workplace, so they are better prepared
the „anytime, anywhere‟ food planning, services, and more, but with for their future,” he says. “And once we
access of Office 2010 OpenOffice we couldn‟t take full advantage have installed Office 2010, students,
of the intelligence bound up in that data,” teachers, administrators, and other staff
that aligns so well with Derison says. “In contrast, with Microsoft members will take advantage of the
Office we can import and export the data „anytime, anywhere‟ access of Office 2010
our learning seamlessly, and with Office Excel we can that aligns so well with our learning
environment.” easily perform the kind of analyses we need environment.”
for implementing initiatives that will help
Bailey Mitchell, Chief Information Officer, the district to keep student achievement at *Access to and use of the Internet may
Forsyth County Schools high levels.” require payment of a separate fee to an
Internet service provider. Local and/or
For teachers, the deployment of Microsoft long-distance telephone charges may
Office is helping to open up what Mitchell apply.
calls the “transformational” possibilities of
the learning management system.
“Teachers are converting paper-based
course content for use in the new system
without the incompatibility delays of
before,” he explains. “They are back on
track with our migration of the classroom
from a largely paper-based environment to
one that is mostly online.”
Having Microsoft Office back on Forsyth
County Schools computers also is making a
difference outside the classroom, for
students working on their home computers,
as almost all of them do. “Parents who used
to watch their child struggle for minutes
just to open a document in OpenOffice are
now are seeing their child open the same
document in just seconds,” Mitchell says.
“These parents are thanking us for making
it so much easier for their son or daughter
to complete assignments at home.”

6. For More Information Microsoft Office System
For more information about Microsoft The Microsoft Office system is the business
products and services, call the Microsoft world‟s chosen environment for
Sales Information Center at (800) 426- information work, providing the programs,
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft servers, and services that help you succeed
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- by transforming information into impact.
2495. Customers in the United States and
Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing For more information about the Microsoft
can reach Microsoft text telephone Office system, go to:
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. www.microsoft.com/office
Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access
information using the World Wide Web,
go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about Forsyth
County Schools, call (770) 887-2461 or
visit the website at:
www.forsyth.k12.ga.us
Software and Services  Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
 Microsoft Office − Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
− Microsoft Office Professional Plus  Services
2007 − Microsoft Live@edu
− Microsoft Office Professional Plus  Third-party Software
2010 − Altiris Deployment Solution from
Symantec
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published September 2010