PRESS RELEASE
New contest will award small businesses a total of $365,000 in prizes, and a new Office 365 Marketplace makes it easier for customers and partners to connect.
London, UK - April 18, 2011 - Microsoft Corp. today announced the public beta of Microsoft Office 365, the company's next-generation cloud productivity service for businesses of all sizes.
Office 365 was introduced in limited beta last year, bringing together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service. The public beta allows millions of people in 38 countries and 17 languages to try Office 365 for the first time.
For small businesses across the world, Microsoft also announced the "Office 365: Ready for Work" contest today. By sharing their inspiring stories at http://www.facebook.com/office365, small businesses can win Office 365, a $50,000 marketing package and a day's work from a Microsoft executive at the winner's business or charity of choice.
In addition, Microsoft unveiled the Office 365 Marketplace today, which gives customers a simple way to find partner apps and services for Office 365.
Ready For Work Whenever You Are
Since the introduction of Office 365, more than 100,000 organisations, from independent professionals to large enterprises, have signed up to test it. Among them, 70% were small businesses.
"We've been in the cloud for years supporting large enterprises such as Shell and DuPont, but Office 365 takes that same enterprise power and delivers it for small businesses," said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president, Microsoft Office Division Product Management Group. "They can now get the same powerful technology capabilities to match their business ambitions."
With Office 365, moving to the cloud doesn't require people to change the way they work because it's based on the familiar, industry-leading productivity tools people know and trust. Employees get new ways to work together with ease, on virtually any device or mobile phone, using familiar applications, such as Office, that they already know and love. Business owners get the reliability, security and IT controls they need in the cloud.
Ready for Work Contest
Inspired by how big small-business aspirations can be, Microsoft has launched the Office 365: Ready for Work contest.
To enter the contest, small businesses around the world can share their inspiring stories on the Office 365 Facebook page. Winners will be determined with community voting and announced in September 2011. The five winners will receive the following:
- Big-business capabilities with Office 365 for a year
- $50,000 in advertising and business services to drive new business
- A Microsoft executive - ranging from a marketing or finance to a technology leader - for a day, who will work for the winner at their business or charity of choice
Office 365 Marketplace
The Office 365 Marketplace gives customers a simple way to find apps and services when they want to extend and customize Office 365. The Marketplace is now live with more than 100 apps and 400 professional services available from the established community of more than 16,000 Microsoft cloud partners - with new apps and services to be added over time.
Customers in can find the Office 365 Marketplace at http://office365.pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-GB/, and partners can submit new apps and solutions at http://office365.pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-GB/getlisted.
About Office 365
With Office 365, professionals and small businesses can be up and running with Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and an external website in just 15 minutes, for £4 per user, per month.
Office 365 for enterprises has an array of choices for midsize and large businesses, as well as government organisations, starting for as little as £1.30 per user, per month for basic email. Office 365 for enterprises also includes the option to purchase Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop software on a pay-as-you-go basis, for the first time ever. For £15.75 per user, per month, organisations can get Office Professional Plus, along with email, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, video-conferencing, web-conferencing, 24/7 phone support, on-premises licenses and more.
Availability
Customers who get started with the Office 365 public beta can confidently use the service knowing that, when Office 365 launches later this year, they can subscribe and continue using the accounts they've set up during the beta period. Today, people can secure a spot in the Office 365 public beta and learn more about the service at http://www.Office365.com, and follow Office 365 on Twitter (@Office365), Facebook (Office 365) and the Office 365 blog at http://community.office365.com for the latest information.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
