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Explained: Microsoft Office 365 for homes vs businesses

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Chokkapan
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Microsoft Corporation had recently extended its Office 365 to consumers through Home Premium, which promises the latest and complete set of Office applications, for an annual payment of Rs. 4,199.

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This month, the software giant also announced its new Office 365 for businesses - from SMEs to mid-sized and larger enterprises - in India, while making available three business SKUs of Office 2013 (E1, E2 and E3) for on- premise users.

So, it left one with a question on what exactly the benefits for individual consumers and those for the businesses are.

"It's a service designed to help you manage the tasks of your work and home life, wherever you are, whenever you need, online or offline," Ramkumar Pichai, general manager, Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft India, tells CIOL in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of TechEd 2013 that is under way here.

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Home Premium can be installed across five PCs or Macs and five other mobile devices/gadgets you run at home, under single annual subscription. Also, it offers an enhanced storage space of 27 GB on the family pack, an impressive 20 GB increase, on SkyDrive (a cloud-based service by Microsoft). Pichai informs that their traditional suite for homes and students on-premise is also made available to all.

Also read: Microsoft extends Office 365 to homes @ Rs. 4,199 per year

He emphasizes that it is meant to enhance productivity of three entities: individuals, organizations and IT departments, the last of which primarily to help manage newer scenarios, risks and devices.

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The new Office 365 for businesses works across multiple devices, is social and can be integrated with cloud. It boasts of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Project and Visio. Moreover, it includes updated Microsoft Lync Online, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online. SharePoint integrates with Yammer and Lync to provide a social layer.

Microsoft has classified businesses into SMEs, mid-sized and larger enterprises. "It's pre-tailored to suit the needs of every business. If one has an enterprise agreement, Yammer is offered free, otherwise is offered at $3 per user per month, which used to be $15."

If enterprises opt for SharePoint Online with Yammer, it is offered for $4 per user per month. For SMEs, too, the model is the same, and they can choose to go with either cloud, on-premise or both. "We help customers to deploy as well as manage hybrid or on-premise cloud," Pichai says.

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Microsoft Office 365 ranges between $3 per user per month to $22 for business customers. It offers intelligence-driven functionalities that include Quick Analysis, and is backed by Office Store apps.

Pichai beams that they have been getting phenomenal response from the large businesses in India. "One of the five businesses worldwide adopts Office 365 today," he adds, pointing out that its SMB segment enjoys 150 per cent Y-o-Y growth.

"We are enabling workforce across all form factors (devices). None of our competitors offers such a value preposition," Pichai asserts. Among others, the new Office 365 has multiple capabilities that include messaging, content management, enterprise Web 2.0, voice and video, and reporting and analytics.

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