According to reports, the next version of Office software - codenamed 'Office 15' - from Microsoft has is now entered its technical preview stage; and the process of distributing the platform to a selected group of testers is currently underway.

Revealing that Office 15 is one of Microsoft's most ambitious projects, PJ Hough - corporate VP of development for Microsoft's Office Division - said in a January 30-dated corporate blog that the new platform will enable Microsoft to simultaneously upgrade its cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for a number of products, including Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio.

Hough also said in the blog post that, speaking in the simplest of terms, Office 15 - the public beta of which is scheduled to be released this summer - will give the users the ability to "work, collaborate and communicate smarter and faster than ever before."

Despite the fact that Hough refrained from divulging any further details about Office 15, tech write Dwight Silverman is of the opinion that the new Office offering will probably be compatible with the older versions of Windows, as well as the current Windows 7 OS and the yet-to-be-released Windows 8.

With there being speculations galore that that the Office 15 user interface (UI) will be designed to work with touchscreens, and will depend on the tiled look and approach of Windows Phones, called "Metro," Silverman said that a number of Microsoft watchers feel that Office 15 will unfold "a whole new Office interface for use with Win8's Metro UI."