Friday, September 14, 2012

Microsoft’s Office 365 is for every business - Onyeje


Oneyeje, Microsoft Country General Manager
The introduction of Office 365 recently globally is to give a boost to a business sizes, especially the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) says, the country General Manager for Microsoft, Mr. Emmanuel Onyeje.
Revealing this at a press conference in Lagos, Friday, Onyeje said the service would give users the opportunity to work on the cloud which would relief the fear of data loss as in the case of system crash and theft.
Released in June 2012, Office 365 is Microsoft’s next-generation cloud productivity service with the potential to fuel business and economic transformation across the region by delivering cost-effective and flexible access.
He explained that Office 365 has been integrated into Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date service at a very competitive and affordable rate.
“So far since introduction Office 365 has over 10,000 organisations using it around the world, many of which are small and midsize businesses,” he said.
Onyeje noted that users do not need to be Information Technology (IT) experts to work on Office 365 as it has based on familiar productivity tools that people are used to, the Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Access, among others.
He highlighted the merits of using Office 365 to include getting rid of cost attributable to server acquisition, Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) for the server and systems, server installation and maintenance, power generating set, its fueling and its maintenance.
According to Onyeje, the service would reduce the burden on climate change as there won’t be the need for a server and power generators with their side effects on the environment.
The Microsoft country manager also made known that the service as well as other services of the company has mobile versions putting into consideration that mobile phone are becoming more common than Personal Computers (PC).
He affirmed that there is a viable market for the service in Nigeria with over 80,000 registered SMEs and thousands of others not registered, with the chance of global presence.
“We are evolving from the information age to the collaboration age, where the ability to take action on information will set successful business apart from the rest,” Onyeje said that Office 365’s launch in the country would deliver an enterprise-grade collaboration for all businesses.
The product also comes with a 30 days free trial for business after signing up at the product’s website, www.office365.com. The free 30 days trial can also be gotten on registration with the company’s 31 leading local service providers in the country with the added advantage of having access to other offerings.
Speaking at the press briefing, the Information Worker Business Group for Microsoft Africa, Marc Israel affirmed that Office 365 provides productivity backbone for modern businesses in Africa which will work towards the economic transformation of the region.
Commenting on the service, the managing director of ATB TechSoft Solutions, Abiodun Atobatele said his company had evaluated other cloud productivity offerings in the market before going for Microsoft’s which will help ATB TechSoft Solutions to give support to the way at which people work while encouraging the mobility advantage of the service.
“With the service, we have the added benefit of working together with familiar tools on almost any device and can make quicker decisions when needed,” Atobatele added.

Yinka Awosanya/LS

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