TMCnews Featured Article

Reports from earlier this year have indicated that Microsoft Office 365 is quite a hit in Asia’s SMB market. And now it seems that the hosted email service is gaining some momentum with smaller businesses in the U.S. In fact, according to sources, ten percent of small businesses (under 100 employees) are “actively investigating” Microsoft (News - Alert) 365 for their business.

What will surely increase these numbers is the partnership Microsoft recently made with Verizon as this high-profile partnership with Microsoft is offering services called Small Business Essentials. As the name implies, this is a service suite that of consists everything needed for larger corporations that has been scaled down for smaller businesses. 

Additionally, the Office of ten years ago is being replaced by remote workers. And without the costs associated with a shared building, smaller businesses are more likely to develop. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that there are quite a few smaller businesses that operate remotely. Verizon’s (News - Alert) 4G LTE network is ideal for the productive mobile office.

Also, the Price is Right. Verizon’s Small Business Essentials cost $6 a month per person. Because of these rates, smaller businesses might betray their loyalty to other small businesses by opting for Verizon’s services, whose prices it seems, cannot be beat.

The article that investigated Techaisle’s finding about smaller businesses and SMB’s, points out that “actively investigating” does not mean deployment. However, 30 percent of those companies that range from 20 to 50 employees are looking seriously at the suite. Yet, let’s not forget that the partnership with Verizon is still very new. After word gets out about Small Business Essentials, Office 365 will probably be as successful with small businesses here as it is in Asian markets.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.