Microsoft announces Office 365

New cloud service brings together Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync for organisations of all sizes.

Microsoft New Zealand announced the launch of Office 365 today, the company’s next generation in cloud productivity that brings together Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service. Office 365 makes it easier for organisations of all sizes to access and use Microsoft’s business productivity solutions via the cloud. With Office 365, people can work together more easily from anywhere on virtually any device, to simply and securely collaborate with others inside and outside their organisation.

Office 365 is built on years of experience delivering industry-leading business cloud services ranging from the first browser-based email to today’s Business Productivity Online Suite and Live@edu. Moving to the cloud with Office 365 means people don’t have to change the way they work, because Office 365 works with the most popular browsers, smartphones and desktop applications people use today.

“Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, in a single cloud service, all for a predictable monthly cost,” says Anne Taylor, Information Worker Business Group Manager, Microsoft New Zealand.

“Office 365 makes it possible for small owner-operated businesses to get enterprise-calibre software and services for the first time, and helps multi-nationals reduce costs and stay current with the latest innovations. Best of all, their employees don’t have to change the way they work because they can use familiar applications like Office, allowing them to focus on their business, while we and our partners take care of the technology.”

Microsoft worked closely with existing customers to develop Office 365, resulting in a cloud service that is designed to meet a wide range of customer needs.

Rod Drury, founder and CEO of online accounting software firm Xero, has redefined the way businesses manage their finances by using the ‘software-as-a-service’ model to allow access to up-to-date financial records in real-time, stored in the cloud.

“Cloud technology is essential to improving the productivity of New Zealand businesses. The launch of Microsoft Office 365 is going to make it even easier for Kiwi businesses to embrace all the benefits cloud computing can offer. With Office 365, small businesses will be able to access enterprise class email and document management, tools that up until now you would only expect to see in a large corporation, at a commoditised price, providing them with a competitive edge to take their business to the next level,” says Rod.

With Office 365 for small businesses, professionals and companies with fewer than 25 employees can be up and running with Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and an external website in just 15 minutes, for $9.25 per user per month.

“It is encouraging that Microsoft is progressing forward with the Business Productivity Online Suite in a structured release, demonstrating a commitment to innovation and a solid road map for the services. This is crucial for enterprise customers moving to the cloud so they have certainty around the services they are buying. This is a strong differentiator against its current market competition, which appears to release functionality in an ad hoc fashion. The improvements around user authentication will allow Provoke to deliver Office 365 to the Citrix customer base which will allow those customers to benefit from the lower costs associated with cloud solutions,” says Brendon Ford, CTO of online solution consultancy Provoke.

With Office 365, existing customers of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite get upgraded versions of SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online; new administration controls; and the ability to more easily sign-in and share content securely with partners, all for a list price of $15.25 per user per month.

Office 365 for enterprises also includes the option to use Office Professional Plus desktop software on a pay-as-you go basis, for the first time ever. For $38.25 per user per month, organisations can get Office Professional Plus along with email, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, voice and video conferencing, web conferencing, 24/7 phone support, on-premises licenses and more.

Product Availability
Microsoft Office 365 will be available worldwide next year. Starting today, Microsoft will begin testing Office 365 with a few thousand organisations in thirteen countries around the world, and the beta will be expanded to include more organisations over time. Office 365 will be generally available in 40 countries and regions next year.

Later next year, Office 365 will expand to include Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to provide Microsoft’s complete business productivity experience to organisations of all types and sizes. In addition, Microsoft Office 365 for education will debut later next year, giving students, faculty and school employees powerful technology tailored specifically to their needs.

For more information on Office 365 please visit http://www.Office365.com or follow us on Twitter (@Office365) or Facebook (Office 365).

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INTRODUCING OFFICE 365

• Earlier this year, the launch of Office, SharePoint and Exchange 2010 ushered in the future of productivity. Together with Lync, these products provide the productivity backbone for modern businesses.

With these latest products, companies are seeing great results, and their people can now work with ease from anywhere on virtually any device.

People can work together simply and securely, and with people inside and outside their organisations.

• Office 365 is the next step in the future of productivity.

With Office 365, customers get the best productivity solutions on the planet for a predictable monthly cost, and their employees don’t have to change the way they work because they can use familiar applications like Office.

Office 365 builds on Microsoft’s history of delivering cloud services at scale for more than a decade.

Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity – all in a single service.

• Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync are designed and built to work together, but not all organisations can deliver them this way. The cloud changes that. With Office 365, we take the next step and deliver our products working as designed – working together in the cloud.

This means ‘rich presence’ suddenly lights up everywhere in Office, and you can see at-a-glance if a colleague is available. Then, in one click, you can call, IM, email or even start a video conference.

This means you can bring social networking to everyday work tasks like document sharing and collaboration – but with all the security and privacy that a business requires.

This means you can suddenly see “Mail Tips” in Outlook – a kind of guardian angel that protects you from sending problem emails, such as accidentally emailing a big distribution list.

This means you can ‘broadcast’ PowerPoint presentations to colleagues, and everyone on the team can tune in – even those on a mobile phone.

This means you can harness the power of the cloud to work on the same Word document with multiple people at the same time. You can ‘see’ each other in the document, see changes in real time and collaborate without creating conflicts or losing information.

And, this means you stay in control of your company’s IT and sensitive information with robust management controls.

• Office 365 changes the rules by bringing enterprise-calibre productivity solutions to everyone.

With Office 365, organisations of all shapes and sizes, from the self-employed real estate agent to your local government to multi-national corporations, can get enterprise-grade productivity solutions with just the capabilities they want and at a price that makes sense for the value they get.

With a few clicks, a local business can have world-class IT infrastructure and 20 football fields of data center capacity at their fingertips.

And every 90 days, they get the very latest in productivity when we update Office 365.

With Office 365, you have the power to think big and be small, to be big and act fast. All thanks to simple yet powerful cloud-based tools.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.