Microsoft to Expand Microsoft Online Services for Businesses of All Sizes
Posted on March 4, 2008
Filed Under Microsoft, Server, Silicon Valley News
REDMOND, Wash., March 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Monday from the
annual Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference, Bill Gates, chairman of
Microsoft Corp., will announce that the company will offer Microsoft Online
Services to businesses of all sizes. This announcement marks a significant
step for Microsoft toward expanding its software plus services strategy.
“The combination of software plus services gives customers advanced
choice and flexibility in how they access and manage software,” Gates said.
“With Microsoft Online Services, businesses can deploy software as a
subscription service, from servers they manage on-site, or a combination of
the two, depending on their specific needs. In the future, customers and
partners should expect to see this kind of choice and flexibility for all
of Microsoft’s software and server products.”
Today Microsoft also opened a limited beta trial of the new services;
U.S.-based companies can register for the trial at http://www.mosbeta.com.
The new services are scheduled to be generally available to businesses of
all sizes in the second half of the year.
Based on the proven, business-class software available in Microsoft
Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, the new
services enable businesses to access e-mail, calendaring, contacts, shared
workspaces, and webconferencing and videoconferencing over the Web. The new
services are managed through a single Web-based interface, designed to meet
the needs of IT professionals. Through this security-enhanced interface, IT
professionals can monitor the performance of the services, add and
configure users, submit and track support requests, and manage users and
licenses.
Enterprise Foundation
In September (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/sep07/09-
30RoadmapForBusinessPR.mspx), Microsoft announced the worldwide
availability of Microsoft Online Services for businesses with more than
5,000 users. Today’s announcement extends the same performance,
scalability, security and service level capabilities to all businesses.
Autodesk Inc., Blockbuster Inc., Ceridian Corp., Coca-Cola Enterprises,
Energizer Holdings Inc., Ingersoll-Rand Company Ltd., PFT-Medway and XL
Capital group of companies are among the first companies moving their
communications and collaborations solutions to Microsoft Online Services.
“To become the best beverage sales and customer service company, we
must drive efficiency and effectiveness throughout our company while
significantly increasing opportunities for collaboration among employees,
customers and suppliers,” said John Brock, president and chief executive
officer, Coca-Cola Enterprises. “By working with a world-class leader like
Microsoft to leverage the power of software plus services, we can continue
to drive innovation throughout our organization and more effectively
address the complexities of today’s global business environment.”
Flexible Licensing Model
To help companies take advantage of Microsoft Online Services,
Microsoft introduced a new licensing model with flexible options for
customers.
New customers and customers without Microsoft Software Assurance can
purchase Microsoft Online Services as a per-user subscription. Existing
customers with Software Assurance on their Microsoft Client Access Licenses
can purchase a user subscription at a discount, enabling them to maximize
their existing Microsoft software investments. Customers with a
subscription have rights to both Microsoft Online Services and to access
on-premises server software, giving them the ability to blend Web-based
services with on-premises software.
Microsoft will offer Exchange Online and SharePoint Online together
with Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting as a suite of
services or as individual service offerings.
Expanding Partner Opportunities
Microsoft Online Services create new opportunities for partners to
resell, customize and provide consulting, migration and managed services
for customers. Atos Origin S.A., BT, Ceryx Inc., Evolve Partners Inc.,
Getronics NV, HCL Technologies Ltd. and Unisys Corp. are among the first
partners to announce they will support Microsoft Online Services and
provide offerings based on the new services.
“Microsoft Online Services provide partners with opportunities to
expand reach, grow revenue and increase speed to sales and implementation,”
said Chris Capossela, senior vice president of the Information Worker
Product Management Group at Microsoft. “By extending our enterprise
software offerings as a subscription service, our partners have the ability
to develop and deliver new services with little overhead but maximum
revenue potential.”
More information on Microsoft Online Services can be found at the
following resources:
— Microsoft Online Services home page:
http://www.microsoft.com/online/default.mspx
— Partner PressPass feature:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/default.mspx
— TechNet Edge video:
http://edge.technet.com/Media/Introducing-Microsoft-Online-Services
— Partner reaction: below, following conclusion of press release
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.
Microsoft Online Services Opens the Door to Partner Opportunity and
Profitability
Atos Origin SA
“Atos Origin sees an increasing demand for delivering services in an
easier and simpler way, and we have already started to deliver services
over the cloud. Innovation through collaboration is one of Atos Origin’s
key values and our strong, and long-standing alliance with Microsoft allows
us to enrich our portfolio of services to better serve our customers and
offer them innovative, flexible and compliant solutions for today’s and
future market demands,” said Francis Delacourt, CEO, Global Managed
Operations, Atos Origin.
BT
“BT is delivering on the promise of Unified Communications today. We
believe that this launch will complement BT’s existing portfolio of UC
solutions and will enable us to integrate Microsoft Online Services with
BT’s own voice and Web services for a more complete communications
solution,” said Clive Ansell, president, Strategy, Marketing &
Propositions, BT Global Services.
Courtesy Computers Inc.
“Because our customers will continue to require support and setup
services, we see a hosted Exchange solution as an opportunity for
additional revenue. … We know where the market is headed; customers need
to be mobile and their data needs to stay as secure as possible. … Hosted
solutions provide an affordable way for small businesses to get up and
running, and a great foot in the door for partners to support them,” said
Tim Woodcock, president and CEO, Courtesy Computers.
Evolve Partners Inc.
“We’ve seen a revenue improvement in both line-of-business and legacy
applications, as we are able to focus more on core customer initiatives.
… Customers want to take their attention away from these traditional
systems that aren’t a part of their core, revenue-generating focus.
Exchange Online allows them to focus on their business application
priorities … . Over time, Software as a Service-led engagements yield two
times more partner revenue than traditional consulting-led engagements,”
said Tim Acker, executive vice president and chief operating officer,
Evolve Partners.
Getronics NV
“The Microsoft Online Services offering is a clear extension of
Getronics’ focus on delivering rationalized Information and Communications
Technology workspace services for our clients, through our
Microsoft-centric Future-Ready Workspace. We’re proud to work with
Microsoft to plan and deploy these applications and to bring our joint
customers end-to-end solutions that can really drive business forward. This
combination helps us accelerate our response to client requirements as well
as streamline solution deployments, enabling our enterprise clients to
derive significant value,” said Coen Olde Olthof, vice president,
Marketing, Portfolio and Alliances, Getronics.
HCL Technologies Ltd.
“This partnership with Microsoft Online Services underscores HCL’s
demonstrated leadership and investment in Software + Services and
productized integrated services that focus on standardizing environments
through reference-based architectures. The time-tested industry standard
processes and technology frameworks not only provide customers the choice
and flexibility for how they access and manage technology, but also enable
them to limit their investment and control risks. This flexibility allows
businesses to convert variable or unknown cost IT models to predictable or
fixed IT cost models, while meeting security, compliance and scalability
requirements — whether it’s accessed in the cloud, entirely on premise or
anywhere in between,” said Shami Khorana, president, HCL Americas.
HP
“Microsoft Online Services provides an opportunity for HP and Microsoft
to expand our long history of collaboration in the market to provide
innovative solutions to our customers seeking flexibility in accessing and
managing software. HP is in a unique position to provide an end-to-end
portfolio of products and solutions to help customers fully realize the
business benefits of Microsoft Online Services, including a robust hardware
platform to deliver software plus services, HP Consulting and Integration
Transformational Services, and a supporting portfolio of HP Outsourcing
Services,” said Joe Kovach, vice president, Consulting and Integration, HP
Services.
Intermedia Inc.
“Our clients see the Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint brand names as
industry leading, and its entry into this market gives us tremendous
opportunity to grow our business,” said Serguei Sofinski, CEO, Intermedia.
Nimbus
“The addition of the Microsoft brand is a good sign in a new market and
will add confidence to organizations considering hosting options,” said Ian
Gotts, chief executive officer, Nimbus.
NW Computer Support
“Exchange Online and SharePoint Online offer a solid, uncompromising
value proposition for a wide variety of clients. … Microsoft is a brand
name our clients recognize as industry leading. Having the flexibility to
offer our customers an on-premise or a hosted solution ensures we’re
providing them with the right choice, not the only option … . Within five
years, the market will see a major switch from on-premise to hosted
solutions. The emphasis businesses are placing on productivity gains, cost
reduction and operational efficiencies will fuel the adoption of SaaS and
bring it mainstream,” said Tom Rash, president, Northwest Computer Support.
Susquehanna Technologies
“The lower startup cost of hosting can compete with free or inexpensive
alternatives, giving companies with limited budgets additional options. The
addition of the Microsoft brand in the hosted market adds an extra level of
reliability and peace of mind to our customers,” said Bradley Bogle,
director of Marketing, Susquehanna Technologies.
Unisys Corp.
“Unisys bolsters its commitment to meeting our clients’ emerging need
for utility-based services with our teaming agreement with Microsoft Online
Services to deliver hosted messaging and collaboration services. Unisys
will provide these new software plus services solutions that give CIOs
another tool to free in-house IT resources to focus on more revenue and
productivity- oriented projects. These online services give large
enterprises increased ability to rationalize their messaging and
collaboration costs while simultaneously deploying the latest Microsoft
technologies. Unisys is primed to bring these exciting new Microsoft Online
Services to current and new clients, as an IT-managed services leader known
for designing and delivering innovative IT solutions for the world’s
biggest and most complex government and enterprise organizations,” said
Tony Doye, president, Unisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure
Services.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
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