Microsoft partners with GoDaddy to deliver Office 365 to small businesses

When it comes to running a small business, any help is good help. Spending time on trivial matters like getting your email up and running or making sure you can access the documents you need whenever and from wherever you need them, are time wasters.

To help out small business owners on their track to success, Microsoft has partnered with one of the web’s top platforms, GoDaddy. The partnership promises to integrate the easy to use and reliable Office 365 service without making web owners get down and dirty with technical details.

Microsoft’s Office 365 platform allows users to perform a variety of functions including the ability to sync email, calendar, and contracts across all devices, receive secure cloud storage via Microsoft SkyDrive Pro, host online meetings with screen sharing capabilities, and more.

“Combining our small-business expertise together with Microsoft’s productivity offerings opens new doors for small businesses to easily get the tools they need to get more done in their day,” said Steven Aldrich, senior vice president of Business Applications, GoDaddy. “We’ve created a simple way to attach Office 365 to a domain name, helping small-business owners look professional and work anywhere, making the business of running their business easier.”

There are three plans to choose from that incorporate Office 365. The first plan costs $3.99 per user/month and gives you 5 GB of email storage, email, calendar, contacts, and 2 GB of SkyDrive Pro space. The second costs $8.99 a month and allows the user 50 GB of email storage, 25 GB of SkyDrive Pro Space, online conference meetings, and access to Office Web apps. The last plan costs $12.49 and adds on desktop versions of Microsoft’s Office suite of applications along with Office Mobile access for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone devices.

GoDaddy currently serves 12 million customers worldwide and the recent partnership with Microsoft simply aims to make getting your business up and running even easier. As of now, the program is available in the United States and Canada, but “will expand globally within the next three months”.

I personally used Office 365 in the past and it was a please, but I wish I didn’t have to go through all the steps of setting everything up. GoDaddy with Office 365 will definitely please a new generation of online small business entrepreneurs.

What do you think about Microsoft teaming up with GoDaddy to spread the use of Office 365?

Source: Microsoft

Michael Archambault