People inside Microsoft have openly related a story about Bill Gates’ initial evaluation of Office 2007. He congratulated them on a number of new features, but the additions weren’t exactly fresh; they were introduced with Office 97.

Hearing about Gates acting human is always a pleasure, but why would anyone at Microsoft admit that he didn’t know about features that had been a part of one of his company’s premier products for 10 years? (Another question: How is it that they still work there?)

The answer is simple: Office 2007 does what it was designed to do. That is, to make it easier for users to find features that were buried in previous versions’ meandering menu structures. It turned Gates into a guinea pig, enlightening him about product functionality he didn’t know existed, even though he had undoubtedly seen it before.

But the redesign’s success brings two new challenges to help desks, which they didn’t face with earlier Office upgrades.

The first is bringing users up to speed. The new interface renders even the most perceptive employees helpless when trying to complete tasks they’ve done for years. This often results in an overwhelming volume of help desk calls when users launch Office 2007 the first dozen or so times.

It turned Gates into a guinea pig, enlightening him about product functionality he didn’t know existed, even though he had undoubtedly seen it before.

The second challenge presents itself when the interface starts to work and users begin to find features they never noticed before (see the Gates example above). They find it all right, but it doesn’t mean they know how to use it. Cue the help desk.

But back to Gates a minute: While we enjoy any foible he may have, do you think the typical help desk analyst, who spends his days solving network and hardware issues, knows more about Microsoft Office than Gates? In many cases, the IT staff will not be able to answer the Office 2007 questions, and the result will be frustrated analysts and end users.

Bringing in a best-of-breed migration partner like PC Helps ensures that Office 2007’s challenges are met. Fully trained Microsoft Office specialists are available on demand, but the help desk pays for the expertise only when it is being used by employees. Such specialists provide the necessary extra staffing on roll-out days and the depth of understanding as end users begin to discover “new” features.

Users and IT staffers may find it amusing that Bill Gates doesn’t know his own product, but neither is likely to laugh when they are stymied by it.

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