Large enterprises to small businesses of different needs and budgets can now benefit from the power of the new Office and the connectivity of the cloud
Hong Kong — March 12, 2013 — Microsoft Hong Kong today announced the worldwide availability of a major new update to its Microsoft Office 365 business services, adding new features and offerings tailored to the needs and budgets of small, medium-size and large organizations. Microsoft’s most complete Office cloud service to date not only offers updated Microsoft Lync Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online services, it also gives business users access to the rich Office applications they are familiar with, on up to five devices, delivered as an always up-to-date cloud service. Office 365 features enhanced enterprise social capabilities with SharePoint and Yammer today, and Lync-Skype connectivity for presence, instant messaging (IM), and voice by June.
“With Office 365, everyone from large enterprises to small businesses to individual consumers can now benefit from the power of Office and the connectivity of the cloud,” said Joelle Woo, marketing and operations director, Microsoft Hong Kong. “This release unlocks new scenarios and delivers capabilities that far surpass anything available in browser-only solutions.”
Wave of continued customer momentum underscores demand for new cloud service
Since launching in mid-2011, Office 365 has been one of the fastest-growing businesses in Microsoft history. After only 18 months one in five of Microsoft’s enterprise customers uses the paid service, up from one in seven a year ago. The number of small and midsize businesses using Office 365 has also grown by 150 percent in the past 12 months. In Hong Kong, the growth of Office 365 business has been significant, achieving triple digit growth year-on-year since it launched. Customers join others across the business, public and education sectors that have chosen Office 365, including Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Emperor Group, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, NOVA Business Services and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. More than 90 percent of the new customers come from the small and mid-sized business sector, and close to 70 percent began by using Exchange Online for better communications and collaboration.
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| Office 365 for Business with some major updates officially is available in Hong Kong (left to right) Raju Daryanani, vice president of IT infrastructure and information security, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group & Joelle Woo, marketing and operations director, Microsoft Hong Kong |
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Mandarin Oriental is deploying Office 365 to 5,000 users and will save more than 20% in costs across the Group over five years
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is the owner and operator of 28 high-end luxurious hotels spanning Asia, Europe and North America. Currently, it has over 11,000 employees worldwide.
“The IT infrastructure in a hotel is very complex with each hotel normally having 25-40 servers running 2-3 dozen applications simultaneously. The challenge is even greater as hotels must operate in a 24×7 environment with a lean IT team. To reduce the complexity of hotel management and cut down our carbon footprint, we decided to pursue IT in the cloud,” said Raju Daryanani, vice president of IT infrastructure and information security, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. “Email is a mission-critical application and the lifeblood of the hotel, and therefore we started our Office 365 deployment with Exchange Online.”
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group evaluated other major cloud players, including Google. “The issue with Google is that they do not have all the functionality that Microsoft Exchange has, including enterprise class shared calendaring. This makes a difference in productivity.”
“We have seen a major shift with the consumerization of IT in the last few years, and we have a strong need to support mobile communications. One of the major benefits of Exchange Online is its support for all the different mobile devices that users have, including BlackBerry, Windows Phone 8 and other smartphone models.”
“Another benefit is the mailbox size. Exchange Online gives us up to 25GB of mailbox storage, and this makes it much easier as we don’t have to deal with users storing email on their PC. This also allows us to deploy legal hold if necessary on users mailboxes as everything is now in one place.”
“For even better communication and collaboration, Lync enables online meeting with full conferencing capabilities that are easy to set up with just a few clicks in Outlook. Yammer also provides a platform for social collaboration, allowing people from different hotels to resolve common problems and share best practices”
Daryanani added, “By the end of 2013, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group will have migrated 1,500 users to Office 365 using Exchange Online for email and Lync Online for messaging and conferencing. This will cover all of our corporate offices and primarily those hotels that we own. Later this year, the Group will migrate our SharePoint on-premise platform to the cloud, and we also plan to expand the deployment to managed hotels, pushing the total number of users up to 5,000 next year.”
Information on this customer and others is available at http://www.microsoft.com/hk/casestudies/.
New Office 365 Offerings Tailored for Customer Needs
Today, Microsoft is announcing a new set of Office 365 offerings designed to meet a broad variety of business requirements:
- Office 365 ProPlus. Office 365 ProPlus includes the latest and most complete set of fully featured, rich Office applications — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, InfoPath and Access — delivered as a service, on up to five devices. People can now simply sign in to Office 365 from any of their devices, and their documents and personalized settings roam with them, allowing them to quickly pick up right where they left off. IT departments also get the controls they need, including the ability to run Office 365 ProPlus side-by-side with other versions of Office and tools to streamline and manage updates for their users. Office 365 ProPlus is available as a standalone offering for US$144 per user for an annual subscription and is included with the updated premium Office 365 Enterprise offerings and the new Office 365 Midsize Business.
- Office 365 Midsize Business. Office 365 Midsize Business is designed for medium-sized businesses with 10 to 250 employees. This service includes Office 365 ProPlus and provides midsize businesses with enterprise-quality communication and collaboration with Exchange Online, Lync Online and SharePoint Online — along with the simplified IT tools they need to maintain control while reducing complexity. Active Directory integration, a Web-based administration console and business-hours phone support, is also included. Pricing is US$180 per user for an annual subscription, the equivalent of US$15 per user, per month.
- Office 365 Small Business Premium. Office 365 Small Business Premium is designed for small businesses with one to 10 employees. In addition to the complete set of rich Office applications, this service includes business-grade email, shared calendars, website tools and HD videoconferencing capability in an easy-to-manage service that does not require IT expertise. Pricing is US$150 per user for an annual subscription, the equivalent of US$15 per user, per month.
Extending our Cloud Partnership with Hong Kong Broadband Network for Business
Microsoft Hong Kong and Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited (“HKBN”) have also joined hands to offer a new cloud package to Hong Kong businesses. New customers of selected HKBN business broadband services will receive a Microsoft Office 365 Small Business Premium one year subscription for free. Customers can also enjoy an exclusive offer on 100Mbps Business Broadband service with one year Microsoft Office 365 Small Business Premium subscription for only HK$299*.
The New Office, Now Available for Everyone
“In addition to the business services announced today, Microsoft launched Office 365 Home Premium and updated versions of the traditional Office suite and servers. With the general availability of Office 365 for all businesses, the new Office is now fully available to businesses, academic institutions and consumers,” Woo added.
Customers can purchase Office directly from Microsoft or through an authorized retail outlet or partner. More information on Office and how to sign up for a free trial is available at http://www.office.com.
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*Terms and conditions apply. For details, please call HKBN Enquiry Hotline: 128-1111.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
