Starting today, Microsoft is extending the availability of its hosted productivity and collaboration services to 19 additional countries, most of them European but also in some key markets like Canada, Japan and New Zealand.
The company’s Business Productivity Online Suite, part of Online Services, is now available for trial in all of those countries (see below for details) after being made available to U.S. businesses last November, but only up to 20 users. Full commercial availability of BPOS is coming in April.
What does the suite include?
- Exchange Online (messaging service)
- SharePoint Online (intranet / portal solution)
- Office Communications Online (unified communications platform)
- Office Live Meeting (web-based conferencing application)
NetworkWorld offers a good overview of expected pricing in the UK, Europe and Asia based on current U.S. pricing. The suite is now available in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Microsoft also got a big enterprise customer to boast about together with the worldwide release of the services suite: healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline has signed a multi-year contract with the Redmond-based software giant, who will install the Business Productivity Online Suite and the Deskless Worker Suite (a limited suite for workers who only access business services infrequently) on 100,000 desktops worldwide under the agreement. GSK expects to be able to cut IT operational costs by roughly 30% of what they’re spending now.
Slowly but surely, Microsoft is moving its traditionally license-based productivity software online, in an effort to broaden the scope for the most profitable part of its business. It will be interesting to see if and how this will affect the company’s bottom line in the years to come.
Hopefully this will pan out for MS, I guess you throw enough money at it eventually it will work?
Yes, Hopefully it will work.
Microsoft’s core competency is enterprise. Google or a Salesforce is unlikely to challenge.
Conversely, Microsoft’s web image needs help – particularly among Silicon Valley developers.
Charging per seat works great for Microsoft among enterprises. It pisses off developers and small businesses. Just an opinion.
Business productivity suite ??
from when did using MS products start making people productive ?? ;-P
Are you telling me you are following IBM and dont use any MS product?
Tipical disgrunted Linux or Apple Fanboy… just because you are not productive does not mean other people are not productive. Douch!
MSN is very eager to become increasingly competitive in the online space. Another attempt to make something work. We will have to wait and see what happens.
Neat
Really neat
I’m very encouraged by this announcement. On one hand, this makes hosted Sharepoint a stronger competitor. GroupSwim is my company and we compete again Sharepoint in some cases. On the other hand, it shows more and larger companies are becoming increasingly comfortable with moving services and applications to the cloud. This is very consistent with other trends where companies, given the economic pressure, are going to increasingly look offsite for solutions. I’m happy to see Microsoft also blazing the trail that SalesForce.com started years ago.
Microsoft is going SaaS. Initially they were in denial about Online Apps. Later they got Live Office… SaaS is definitely catching at MS! lol
http://www.open-tube.com
the open blog
We welcome the move by Microsoft to rollout their volume offering across the globe. This validates the model that leading service providers have been architecting for several years and will take the online services market beyond the traditional early adopters that have been the only takers until now.
But, while Microsoft and Google are slogging it out on price, established Service Providers like Cobweb will continue to do what they do best – focus on the customer need, offer a wide-range of services, deliver great customer service with personal support, and ensure our resellers get what they really want – decent margin and customer ownership.
Read more detailed thoughts on the Cobweb Blog, including more on the “Power of Choice” and how we’re part of this offering as a Microsoft Gold Partner for Hosted Solutions
Tipical disgrunted Linux or Apple Fanboy… just because you are not productive does not mean other people are not productive. Douch!
OH! You’re my new favorite blogger fyi
We welcome, Microsoft competition in to Internet.
Strongly, oppose Monopoly in INternet.
It has potential. The idea is if executed well amongst competition, this will be to the benefit of everyone. MSFT is indeed adopting the SaaS model in a growing portion of their businesses. I don’t really see what choice they have given their core business will never experience the growth it used to. I check justaskgemalto before using any new service though for security concerns.
My primary worry is this: do you give consideration to those who have no authorisation to work in the U.S? Is it possible to enter into an agreement to sponsor someone to the U.S, afterwhich, the person pays for all the expenditure, subsequently on instalmental basis with agreeable percentage?