Microsoft has announced the commercial launch of Microsoft Office 365, the company’s next-generation cloud productivity service for businesses of all sizes, in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

Previously available on a trial basis in markets across the Middle East and Africa, Office 365 is now commercially available in 16 countries across the region.

The cloud solution will also be available with local pricing in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Leading regional service providers will bring Office 365 to their customers, integrating the service with their other offerings.

Office 365 brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date service, at a monthly cost.

The service was introduced in limited beta last year with enthusiastic response, particularly among small and midsize businesses. Over a few months, more than 10,000 organisations, many of which were small and midsize businesses, signed up and began testing Office 365, creating one of Microsoft’s largest global beta programs for businesses, a statement said.

“Today, we are evolving from the information age to the collaboration age, where the ability to take action on information will set successful businesses apart from the rest,” said Yasir Khokhar, Microsoft Office Business Group Lead at Microsoft.

“Today’s launch of Office 365 will accelerate that evolution by delivering enterprise-grade collaboration for everyone.”

Moving to the cloud with Office 365 doesn’t require a business to change the way it works, because the service is based on familiar productivity tools people know and trust, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access and more, he added.

Employees get new ways to work together with ease, on virtually any device or mobile phone, and businesses get the reliability, security and IT controls they need in the cloud, even without a dedicated  IT staff, Khokhar explained.

With Office 365 for small businesses, professionals and small businesses can be up and running with Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and an external website in just 15 minutes, for a monthly fee.

These tools put email, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, video conferencing, web conferencing and more at everyone’s fingertips.

Office 365 for enterprises has an array of choices for businesses and includes Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop software on a pay-as-you-go basis. – TradeArabia News Service