Microsoft Launches Office 365 in Asia

We love it when there isn’t much lag time in product launches between the U.S and Asia market.

So we thought it was pretty neat when Microsoft announced the availability today of Office 365 in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. (Unfortunately, the launch isn’t for all countries in Asia though.)

So what is Microsoft’s Office 365 all about?

Well in short, a cloud-based IT enterprise solution. It helps businesses, both big and small, to collaborate online:

• Online real-time document sharing/editing
• Instant messaging
• Video and web meetings
• Secure email with calendar integration and more
• ActiveSync, which lets you access all your cloud-based information on any device
• Every Office 365 plan comes with 24×7 IT support

Office 365 comes in two different offers; For small business and enterprise.

With US$6 per user per month, small businesses can power their operations with Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and an external website in minutes. No IT hassle, a plug and play solution.

For the big boys, Office 365 starts from US $2 to $27 per user per month, depending on the customization level. You can head over to the cost estimator to understand the pricing better. Check out what Office 365 can do for businesses this video too:

Early Adopters Claim Success

In today’s launch in Singapore, Microsoft also presented early adopters of Office 365 in the Asia Pacific region, including Crystal Edge Zeptop Consulting in Malaysia, MedRecruit, ESL Industries and Xpress Accounting in New Zealand and Fortescue Metals in Australia.

The statement sent to us boasts that these companies are already reporting a reduction in IT costs due to higher productivity.

While there is much buzz about Office 365, the new Microsoft cloud product does face a stiff challenge from Google Apps, which also helped several companies in Asia to save huge chunk of costs in their IT operation.