New IBM Workplace Managed Client to support open

As governments across the globe and in emerging economies show increasing interest in open-source alternatives to proprietary software, IBM extended its support to open standards in India. Adding to its broad portfolio of standards-based server software, IBM announced that the upcoming version of the Workplace Managed Client will support the newly-ratified Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF) standard. 

By extending the support of open standards to the desktop, IBM customers can now help protect an organization's investment in corporate data by ensuring consistency, reliability and accessibility of their documents.
This announcement is of great relevance in emerging markets such as India, since acceptance of Open Standards, such as ODF, will help governments achieve their goal of truly bridging the digital divide and
reaching out to citizens by deploying open, accessible standards - not proprietary software.

Commenting on Open Standards traction in the country, M Moni, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre(NIC) said, “As a premier government organization undertaking strategic e-government/e-governance
projects at national and state levels, NIC has been promoting open standards, open source, and products and technology with clear R&D roadmaps to reach public services to 'Unreached' and grassroots
development. They are the key factors underpinning our endeavours to leverage IT as an enabling catalyst to develop and run products and services more effectively and in tune with India's growing digital based economy. 

NIC has received mandate from the Central Department of Information Technology to work in the areas of standards to facilitate implementation of national e-governance programme in the country. 

As an increasing amount of corporate data is captured, stored and exchanged electronically, customers are becoming aware that the accessibility and maintenance of documents is critical to the long term success of their organization. Proprietary file formats force businesses into a perpetual cycle of royalty and licensing fees, which can restrict growth and innovation by requiring that companies stay locked into their original software choices just to ensure future access to their documents. 

Open standards like ODF help ensure interoperability between systems, and that documents will be accessible well into the future regardless of the platform or software, offering customers the choice and flexibility to base IT decisions on business needs and avoid being
locked in to one software platform or vendor.