Office 365: What a Rush!

Based on the news coming today from our Worldwide Partner conference, it’s clear that businesses of all sizes are eager to experience firsthand the benefits of Office 365. In the 13 days since we launched the service more than 50,000 organizations have started trials of Office 365. That means more than one organization signs up to try the service, every 25 seconds!

It’s clearly a hit with businesses, large and small, and this new service gives our partners fantastic opportunities to transition businesses to the cloud.

What’s driving the intense interest in Office 365?

Quite simply, customers know Office 365 can help businesses reduce IT costs and improve productivity, and leave IT to the experts while they focus on their core business goals.

Small and large companies alike see Office 365 as the foundation for communication and collaboration in today’s business environment. My discussions with Office 365 customers reflect the sentiment from business leaders that Office 365 will overhaul the way companies manage IT and help consolidate back-end systems, while giving workers the latest, industry-leading, productivity technology. 

The American Red CrossAs discussed today during Steve Ballmer’s keynote at the conference, the American Red Cross will move 66,000 people to Office 365 email this year, across its 620 U.S. chapters.

Email is a big deal to the American Red Cross; it needs to be reliable, secure, and fast, to help the organization support disaster response, supply nearly half the nation’s blood supply, teach lifesaving skills, provide international humanitarian aid, and support military members and their families.

Office 365 will streamline and improve the security of the organization’s email, and make it easier for employees to communicate and collaborate with colleagues and partners through one platform, with a centralized email directory. The CEO will even be able to reach everyone in the entire organization through one email, if need be. The American Red Cross will always have the most current version of email technology, and will be able to reduce its email costs with the service.

American Red Cross joins more than 100 US, Fortune 500 businesses that have Microsoft Online Services, and are the latest to see impressive productivity-boosting and cost-conscious results.

Last year we announced we were 'all-in' with the cloud; today, customers and partners are demonstrating they're 'all-in' too.

How will your business use Office 365? Drop me a note, I’d love to know.

And to our partners, have a great week at WPC and check back here to learn more about how Office 365 can help you transform your business!