Office 365 sparks massive SMB interest in the cloud
[Partner info]&nbnbsp;Office 365 – work anywhere, anytime
SMBs are moving towards the Cloud – three years from now almost all of them will be operating there, driven by technological, business and organizational needs. I believe that Office 365 will be playing a major role in this transition, and I’m excited to be part of it.
Office 365 sparks massive SMB interest in the Cloud
Email has traditionally been the main driver as SMBs migrated to the Cloud. But this is rapidly changing due to growing interest in SharePoint Online and Lync Online. We’re really pleased with this trend, as well as the buzz about Office Online and Exchange Online. We’ve integrated with Skype, and will be doing the same with Yammer – the social media platform for businesses – this summer. We’re really ready to go.
Making collaboration easy
We brought Office 365 into the market in 2011, and since that time our subscribers have been using it to benefit their businesses in lots of ways. They use Exchange Online for their email, calendar and contact information. SharePoint Online allows them to share documents and collaborate with ease. Lync Online lets them chat and conduct HD video conferencing. And our standard Office applications maintain continuity of use. Of course, we have Web applications too – Office Web Apps that create the opportunity to use ‘light’ cross-browser versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and One Note, with plenty of possibilities for viewing and editing documents.
Work on up to five different devices
Some SMBs struggle with their IT systems and policies. And the fact that people are working on the move often introduces even more challenges. We understand this, and we’ve made sure that our subscribers can run Office 365 on up to five different devices seamlessly. This benefits users as they work anytime, anywhere. And of course it benefits IT departments as well as we lighten their load. In fact, I think that one of the best benefits of Office 365 is the fact that upfront investment in IT infrastructure is no longer required. Our customers simply pay a monthly user fee – which also covers things like upgrades, security and backups.
Where is my data?
Even though most SMBs were comfortable with Cloud email, many of them got cold feet when it came to the external management of company data. Even today, people frequently ask “Where is my data?” Our Microsoft Trust Center explains in detail how Microsoft handles external data, and our Office 365 contracts are extremely transparent in this respect. Our customers know exactly where their data is stored at all times, and that the security of our data centres is actually superior to that of average SMBs or even top companies.
Completely synchronized, completely connected
I think one of the biggest changes in attitudes towards work is centred around mobility. People aren’t tied to their desks anymore. In fact, the opposite is probably true – they are now expected to be able to work anywhere, anytime. What does this mean for our customers? It means they need affordable technology that will enable them to work from any location, collaborate virtually and access and edit data any time they please. Office 365 lets them do this and more. Many of them are even moving from our traditional Windows 7 keyboard/mouse approach to our optimized ‘touch’ Office that has been a real hit on Windows 8 tablets.
SharePoint Online – making back-ups obsolete
Our standard SharePoint Online has recently been equipped with extensive new functionalities, including expanded project follow-up abilities. It comes with 10 GB of standard storage capacity, which can easily be increased by another 500 MB per active user. These users also have an additional 7 GB of personalised storage at their disposal, which they generally use to store working documents. This means that the Cloud versions of their documents are always available, effectively making backups obsolete. Of course, their connected devices can also be synchronised to enable them to work offline as well.
Lync Online – easy integration with Skype for increased collaboration
While SharePoint allows our customers to share documents easily, Lync Online completes the collaboration model by adding simultaneous communication facilities via chat, voice or HD videoconferencing. In other words, people can chat about the documents they are looking at together. Our Instant Messaging/Chat application remains at the core, but we’ve seen lots of movement towards voice and webcam chats via VoIP, as well as online meetings. And the Lync-to-Phone capability has been popular. When we bought Skype in 2011 we worked hard to integrate it with Lync – and we’ve been successful. Now our customers use this integrated service for peer-2-peer voice, chatting and presence information. It’s propelling this collaborative trend even further.
Office 365 – your complete office in the Cloud
I’m proud of the many ways in which Office 365 is making our customers’ working lives easier. As we move forward with them, our goal will be to help customers increase their ability to work and collaborate on the go, comfortable that their data is secure and their business is in sync with changing technology.
