Sprint to offer Microsoft Office 365 to SMBs

Telecom Lead America: Mobile service provider Sprint will
offer Microsoft Office 365 to small and mid-sized businesses this year.


Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity and collaboration
solutions will benefit enterprises as they can enhance productivity, reduce
costs and collaborate with customers and partners while also extending the
cloud-based communication tools to mobile workforces.


Office 365 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.
Enterprises 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.


Sprint plans to bundle Office 365 with value-added
services to create solutions that increase productivity. SMBs will be able to
access comprehensive enterprise-class solutions. They can also benefit by
ensuring cost savings, scalability and flexibility needed to help them grow.


John Dupree, senior vice president – Business Sales,
Sprint, said Sprint’s focus on 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.


The tie-up with Microsoft enables Sprint to expand the
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio. 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.


Kirk Gregersen, general manager, Microsoft Office
Division, said 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.


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