Starting today, Microsoft is extending the availability of its hosted productivity and collaboration services to 19 additional countries, most of them European but also in some key markets like Canada, Japan and New Zealand.
The company’s Business Productivity Online Suite, part of Online Services, is now available for trial in all of those countries (see below for details) after being made available to U.S. businesses last November, but only up to 20 users. Full commercial availability of BPOS is coming in April.
What does the suite include?
- Exchange Online (messaging service)
- SharePoint Online (intranet / portal solution)
- Office Communications Online (unified communications platform)
- Office Live Meeting (web-based conferencing application)
NetworkWorld offers a good overview of expected pricing in the UK, Europe and Asia based on current U.S. pricing. The suite is now available in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Microsoft also got a big enterprise customer to boast about together with the worldwide release of the services suite: healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline has signed a multi-year contract with the Redmond-based software giant, who will install the Business Productivity Online Suite and the Deskless Worker Suite (a limited suite for workers who only access business services infrequently) on 100,000 desktops worldwide under the agreement. GSK expects to be able to cut IT operational costs by roughly 30% of what they’re spending now.
Slowly but surely, Microsoft is moving its traditionally license-based productivity software online, in an effort to broaden the scope for the most profitable part of its business. It will be interesting to see if and how this will affect the company’s bottom line in the years to come.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
译文:
微软向19国推商务产品，签约葛兰素史克
从即日起，微软将提高主打产品的生产率，并扩大与19个国家之间的合作。这些国家大部分来自与欧洲，但加拿大，日本，新西兰也同样属于重点市场。
去年11月，该公司的一个在线服务软件——商业产品在线套装，被美国企业所使用。自此，所有那些国家（阅读以下内容以获取详细信息）都可以使用该产品。但这最多只能有20个使用者。4月份，该软件可在微软的所有外包服务供应商中购得。
这套软件囊括了那些功能呢？
-在线交易（信息服务）
-在线分享（内线/外线通道）
-在线聊天室（一体化的交流平台）
-在线会议室（以网络为基础的会议应用程序）
根据美国当前的定价，网界网针对英国，欧洲，亚洲制订了一个较好的价格预计一览表。目前，该软件在澳大利亚，比利时，加拿大，丹麦，芬兰，法国，德国，爱尔兰，意大利，日本，荷兰，新西兰，挪威，葡萄牙，西班牙，瑞士，瑞典及英国均可买到。
微软还拥有一个大客户，它可将此服务软件向全世界推广：保健公司葛兰素史克与Redmond-based这一软件巨头签署了一份长年合同。根据协定，葛兰素史克将会把商业产品在线套装和无电脑工作者套件（适用于不常用电脑进行商业活动的员工），装到全球100，000台电脑桌面上。葛兰素史克希望能因此在IT管理上节省30%的运营开支。
虽然进度缓慢，但目标明确。微软正在改变传统的在线产品的生产率，致力拓展利润最丰厚的领域业务。在未来一年里，这是否会影响，又将如何影响给微软的盈亏.这一幕将会十分有趣。
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.