TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS Microsoft Office 365
Ray of sunshine through the cloud Microsoft Gulf first announced at GITEX 2011 that their Office 365 cloud computing solution would be available for trials across the region as part of its commitment to deliver world class collaboration tools to regional businesses.
Microsoft will roll out a wide range of service plans that are designed to meet the needs of a variety of companies of different sizes at the time of Office 365’s commercial launch. With Office 365, businesses can simply pay a monthly subscription at a price they can predict and afford, or they can connect Office software that they own already with the Office 365 service. Vahe Torossian, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners Group, Microsoft told SME Advisor that what separates Microsoft’s cloud products from competitors is the issue of security. In October Microsoft released its intelligence report, which
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he Office 365 package brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an alwaysup-to-date cloud service, at a predictable monthly subscription. Samer Abu-Ltaif, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf, said during the launch of trials at GITEX 2011, “Microsoft’s cloud computing solutions, such as Office 365, are geared to support emerging economies in the region and accelerate the growth of local innovation industries. We are also pleased to announce LiveRoute as our first SME partner in the region for Office 365. Given their track record and depth of experience in providing cloud-based services, they will be a great asset for our customers.” Through its new competency based Microsoft Partner Programme, Microsoft is working across the region to deliver the focus and expertise that customers need, and especially those in the SME sector. SMEs typically have little or no IT support and very little time and financial resources to dedicate to technology. Now they can easily improve the way they work with access to the collaboration tools and unified communications capabilities that Office 365 gives them. Office 365 helps reduce IT costs and enhance productivity through its integrated experience. Office 365 availability locally is a big step in making the Cloud a reality for SME’s in this region. Microsoft is playing yet again the catalyst role in the IT industry as it did in the past. As an Office 365 partner, we are
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Microsoft officials launching Microsoft Office 365 at GITEX excited about the response from the SME’s in the region. We are excited as Office 365 will provide the freedom and flexibility, affordability and cost savings, while making Cloud benefits realfor SMEs,” said Jawwad Rehman, Managing Director & Partner, LiveRoute. Office 365 was introduced in beta last year and received an enthusiastic response. In a few months, more than 200,000 organisations worldwide signed up and began testing it. With Office 365, people can come together from virtually anywhere and work together more easily, meeting face-to-face online, sharing work in real time, and accessing email and calendars on virtually any device. Smaller companies can create and maintain a custom website, manage data and stay in control of sensitive information; even with no IT expertise.
SME ADVISOR MIDDLE EAST NOVEMBER 2011
confirmed that best practices from Microsoft were highlighting the manageability of the threat landscape. “The issues of privacy and the value of brand security is something we have invested a lot of time and energy in ensuring. In addition, the Office 365 packages will largely reduce the huge percentage spent by large companies and SMEs (in some cases as much as 85% of IT budgets) on the upkeep maintenance of existing information,” said Torossian. “We will launching Office 365 with a free 30 day trial basis from November and thereafter basic packages prices of Office 365 will cost SMEs as little as USD 6 – 24 per month, depending on the extent of the package. Obviously basic packages can have tailor made add-ons if they feel the need to have them,” added Torossian.