Computerworld

​Microsoft dangles Office 365 carrot in front of pro-cloud Kiwi SMBs

Redmond launches serious cloud offensive in New Zealand.
Julia White - General Manager of Office, Microsoft

Julia White - General Manager of Office, Microsoft

Microsoft has launched a serious cloud offensive within New Zealand this week, revealing plans to fast track small and mid-sized businesses to Office 365.

Terms of the deal will see Kiwi customers with 50 to 149 seats of Office 365 enterprise and small business plans now being able to utilise the Microsoft FastTrack service.

Previously available only to customers with 150 seats or more, FastTrack provides resources and dedicated engineers to help customers or Microsoft partners implement Office 365.

Building on the country’s reputation as being the biggest adopters of Office 365 in the world - rising from 15 percent of the market in 2014 - the Kiwi division of the tech giant hopes the move will continue the company’s strong cloud migration performance across the country.

As confirmed by then Managing Director Paul Muckleston, Office 365 migration in New Zealand is increasing on a monthly basis, with Microsoft adding close to one percent market share per month.

Globally speaking, Redmond claims over 60 million people use Office 365 at work each month, with over 50,000 SMB organisations becoming new customers during the same period.

“We want to make it easier for SMBs to move to Office 365 and experience the ability for your employees to access team files from anywhere, collaborate in real-time from any device and get enterprise-grade security that works as hard for you as for the largest organisations,” states Microsoft’s Office 365 team, in a memo to partners.

“Microsoft’s global network of IT experts play a critical role in helping companies small and large get up and running with the right technology.”

Microsoft’s offer follows a recent Gartner report analysing cloud email usage among public companies of different sizes, industries and geographies to see how Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps for Work are faring.

As reported by Computerworld New Zealand, the analyst firm finds that among these companies, Microsoft leads in all segments, and especially so among larger organisations.