Training specialist Advanced Training has partnered with open source solutions company Cybersource to offer a training solution for businesses looking to migrate users off Microsoft Office onto OpenOffice.org.

"OpenOffice.org now at version 2.0 is a serious contender for best-of-breed business office suite," said Cybersource CEO Con Zymaris. "Over 50 million users have downloaded this free application already and as every month goes by, millions more adopt it. One of the biggest roadblocks to accelerating this trend is user training. So Cybersource has again partnered with Advanced Training to remove that roadblock."

The Cybersource/Advanced Training course covers all the major OpenOffice.org applications: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base, which, according to open source advocates, offer comparable functionality to their Microsoft Office counterparts: Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access.

"We see a huge potential training market for OpenOffice.org," said Frank Hill, Advanced Training's sales manager. "A business can now bring a dozen of its staff upto speed on OpenOffice.org 2.0 for under $2,500."