As per 451 Research’s Hosting and Cloud Study 2017, there has been an increase in the number of hosted application services used by the organizations. Last year, nearly 55% organizations used email, collaboration and productivity apps for increasing business productivity. With digital transformation, hosted application services like file storage, database and warehousing, CRM and others are witnessing an increased usage.
The need for collaborative communication and emailing solutions like Office 365 is also rising. As per the data released by the Microsoft, there are over 70M plus Office 365 commercial active users. Customers want more than just an emailing solution and thus, Office 365 is witnessing a rapid rise and is playing a pivotal role in Microsoft’s growth.
As per Microsoft news on its third quarter results, its revenue in productivity and Business Processes was $8.0 billion that increased 22% (up 23% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:
- Office commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 7% (up 8% in constant currency) driven by Office 365 commercial revenue growth of 45% (up 45% in constant currency).
- Office consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 15% (up 14% in constant currency) and Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 26.2 million.
“Our results this quarter reflect the trust customers are placing in the Microsoft Cloud,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “From large multi-nationals to small and medium businesses to non-profits all over the world, organizations are using Microsoft’s cloud platforms to power their digital transformation.”
Office 365 automatic updates, improved user-adaptability, security and newly added features like Teams and Flow has resulted it in being favoured by SMBs and corporate houses alike.
Increasing demand for Office 365 and migration of email systems is a rising opportunity for service providers as well. As per 451 Research, of all SMBs surveyed, 83% have yet to switch to Office 365.
Migration is not a simple step and includes many important stages from preparation of user accounts, directory synchronization, mailbox data migration to cutover till clean up and process completion that needs help of a managed service provider.
