Sprint to begin offering Microsoft Office 365 for enterprise clientele
Suit-and-tie types looking for that virtual office on-the-go experience might want to hitch a ride on Sprint's cloud. Starting today, the wireless operator's introducing an add-on package designed for small to medium enterprise clients that bundles Microsoft's Office 365 with other unnamed "value-added services." The move, which gives power users access to MS' web-based apps, video conferencing and shared calendars from anywhere, is part of the Hesse-led company's Software-as-a-Service portfolio that culls together a suite of remote solutions tailored to the button-down set. According to the carrier's site, plans kick off at $6 per month, but you needn't worry about being nickel-and-dimed, your corporate overlord should be footing this bill. Head past the break for the official presser.
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31 July 2012
Sprint to Deliver Cloud-Based Business Productivity Solutions from Microsoft
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), July 31, 2012 - Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced that it will deliver Microsoft Office 365 to small and mid-sized businesses this year. Joining the power of Sprint's network with Microsoft's cloud-based productivity and collaboration solutions will bring organizations new ways to enhance productivity, reduce costs and collaborate with customers and partners while also extending the cloud-based communication tools to mobile workforces.
Office 365 brings together cloud versions of the most trusted productivity and collaboration products with the latest version of Microsoft's client software and companion Web applications. It provides for secure and virtually anywhere access to email, calendars, Office Web Apps, instant messaging, conferencing and file sharing, allowing employees to work on the go, on nearly any device. Easy to set up and use, it includes built-in anti-virus and spam-fighting technology and 99.9 percent uptime guarantee. Companies can deliver the right set of tools to the right users with flexible per-user, per-month subscription plans for predictable annual costs and scale with changing needs.
When Sprint makes Office 365 available, it plans to bundle it with value-added services to create solutions that further increase productivity and unleash the power of today's mobile workforce. Small and mid-sized companies will be able to access some of the most comprehensive enterprise- class solutions available today, and Sprint will make it easier for them to take advantage of cloud services and experience the cost savings, scalability and flexibility needed to help them grow.
"Sprint's open approach to cloud includes teaming with trusted industry leaders, like Microsoft, with proven solutions with which businesses are very familiar, to enable them to achieve greater agility to compete in today's economy," said John Dupree, senior vice president – Business Sales, Sprint. "Our focus on seamless integration of mobility with cloud services allows companies to extend our reliable and secure networks to their mobile workforces, so they can confidently use hosted services anytime, virtually anywhere and from any device."
This marks the expansion of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio already available from Sprint which includes support, office and field-productivity services. Using the "as-a-service" model, Sprint will deliver new applications to round out its portfolio and enable customers to take advantage of the benefits of cloud-based services.
"Combining Sprint's wireless data plans, access through its 3G and 4G networks and scalable services with Office 365 will provide businesses with the tools needed to grow," said Kirk Gregersen, general manager, Microsoft Office Division. "We're delighted to join with Sprint in offering this compelling set of cloud solutions to small and mid-sized businesses."
For more information about Sprint's upcoming offer with Microsoft Office 365, visit www.sprint.com/office365.
This collaboration builds upon the expanding portfolio of cloud-based solutions that Sprint has been focused on launching this year. The portfolio also includes Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) planned for launch in late 2012 and Sprint Complete Collaboration, a Unified-Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solution launched earlier this year.
