Microsoft has made its Business Productivity Online Suite, part of Microsoft Online Services, available for trial to businesses of all sizes in 19 countries and announced plans to release Microsoft Office Communications Online, for instant messaging and presence, and the Business Productivity Online Deskless Worker Suite, an e-mail, calendaring and collaboration service for the occasional user.
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The announcements were made at the CeBit 2009 IT show in Hannover and suggest that release of these services in Australia under a Telstra/Microsoft partnership is imminent. Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, claimed that: "Customers can save between 10 percent and 50 percent in IT-related expenditures as a result of deploying Microsoft Online Services."
Exchange Online and SharePoint Online are now available for trial in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Organisations worldwide will be able to trial and purchase the entire Business Productivity Online Suite, including Office Communications Online, in April.
Businesses will have the option to subscribe to Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting individually or together as a suite. The Business Productivity Online Suite is currently listed at 12.78 euros ($A34.14) per month per user, which offers businesses a 38 percent discount, compared with subscribing separately to the individual services.
In addition, Microsoft says it is committed to providing opportunity for a global ecosystem of partners that will sell, customize and provide consulting, migration and managed services for Microsoft Online Services customers around the world.
The conspicuous absence of Australia from the list above is explained by the fact that, in Australia, Telstra announced last November a partnership with Microsoft to offer these services, but has yet to launch them.
Following the announcement of a similar global partnership between Vodafone and Microsoft last week, Deena Shiff, head of Telstra Business, told iTWire that Telstra's agreement with Microsoft was exclusive. Vodafone however suggested it was looking at introducing the services into Australia. At the time of writing iTWire is awaiting a definitive statement from Microsoft.
The 'Deskless Worker' Suite, including Exchange Online Deskless Worker and SharePoint Online Deskless Worker, will also be available to organizations in the 19 countries and will be available for trial and for purchase worldwide in April. It is billed as "a low-cost solution designed for users who don't have access to messaging and collaboration capabilities today..[that] will offer customers an affordable e-mail and collaboration solution for occasional users."
Microsoft says that, by providing a cost-effective subscription rate (currently listed at 2.56 euros ($A6.84) per month per user), the Deskless Worker Suite will make it possible for organizations to give all employees access to the same messaging and collaboration systems. It claims that, today, in organizations that have deployed e-mail, more than 40 percent of employees do not have e-mail.*
Microsoft Online Services were released in the US in the Northern Autumn of 2008 and Microsoft has now announced that pharmaceutical multinational GlaxoSmithKline will deploy the Business Productivity Online Suite, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online, Office Live Meeting and the Deskless Worker Suite, to more than 100,000 employees worldwide.
"The move to Microsoft Online Services will help GlaxoSmithKline cut operational costs by an estimated 30 percent and create a variable cost model that will provide increased flexibility in the future," said Ingo Elfering, vice president of information technology strategy, GlaxoSmithKline.
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BY Stuart Corner
Source：iWire
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