Lack of standards stifles agility - Vendor lock-in muddles interoperability, prevents shifts to faster solutions

"Microsoft Office is the most obvious example of how proprietary document formats end up limiting customer choices. Once a company has committed a large amount of data to an application suite and its accompanying file types, migrating to a different platform can be too costly to contemplate."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/17/38FE-software-performance-05-standards_1.html

"By deploying open standards early and often, IT departments stand the best chance of forestalling vendor lock-in before it happens. In the long run, the only alternative is an IT organization left with no alternatives."