Microsoft Expands Add-ons for Office 2003Microsoft Expands Add-ons for Office 2003

Microsoft announced Thursday that it will both expand its line-up of business scenario add-ons to Office 2003, and make them available for free to all Office users.

Dubbed Office Solutions Accelerators, the add-ons include software components, templates, and best-practice guides to help enterprises streamline specific business tasks using Office 2003's applications, including Word, Outlook, and Excel.

So far, Microsoft has released two Accelerators, one targeting proposals, the other recruiting. Until now, the add-ons have been available only to customers who had signed up for its Software Assurance maintenance and upgrade program.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company plans to roll out four additional Accelerators -- ones aimed at Sarbanes-Oxley, business scorecards, Excel OLAP reporting, and Six Sigma version 2 -- between March and May, said Peter Rinearson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's of its information worker business unit, in a statement.

These four, as well as the two already released, will all be offered to Office users for free.

“In response to these requests, we'll expand the availability of Office Solution Accelerators to all Microsoft customers and industry partners at no charge,” Rinearson said.

Microsoft also said it would offer an additional dozen Accelerators -- as yet unnamed and unspecified -- in its next fiscal year.

More information on the already-released, and the soon-to-be-released Accelerators, can be found on the Microsoft Web site.