Sprint, Microsoft in Office 365 partnership

Vision 2 Mobile reports.

The carrier says the power of its network, combined with Microsoft's cloud-based productivity and collaboration solutions, will give businesses new ways to enhance productivity, reduce costs and collaborate with customers and partners while also extending the cloud-based communication tools to mobile workforces.

Office 365 offers a cloud-based version of popular Microsoft software and Web applications, writes eWeek.

With it, subscribers will be able to securely access Office Web apps, e-mail, calendar information and instant messages; share files; and conference colleagues from “nearly any device,” says Sprint.

The solution includes built-in antivirus and spam-fighting software, and offers a 99.9% guarantee. Per-month subscription plans, which start as low as $6 a month, keep things scalable and flexible for SMEs.

According to Talk in Cloud, this move represents the latest in what seems to be a continuous line of announcements from vendors and solutions providers related to new offerings of Office 365. Like others, Sprint is targeting the SaaS offering at SMEs while promising the scale of enterprise applications for those in the small and mid-markets.

To try to differentiate itself from what is essentially a resell opportunity for the channel, the company plans to bundle Office 365 with value-added services to create more complete solutions that increase productivity and give a boost to the capabilities of mobile workers.