Microsoft to host Office 365, CRM suite in Aust

Microsoft will start providing its cloud productivity suite and its CRM application from Australian data centres by the end of March.

The company has revealed plans to start hosting Office 365 and Dynamics CRM services from data centres in New South Wales and Victoria.

As part of the move, Microsoft is expanding its cloud solution provider program to include four additional Australian partners - OBS, Cloud First, Nimbal and OzHosting. The companies are joining existing partners Ensyst, Melbourne IT and iiNet.

Cloud First has used the partnership to develop Franchise First, a platform of Microsoft online services tailored for franchise systems.

Microsoft has now opened the program to a broad range of providers. Cloud partners take responsibility for direct billing, provisioning, management and support for the services.

According to Microsoft Australia Managing Director Pip Marlow, hosting the services locally will improve performance, offer geo-redundant backup and address regulatory issues with data that must be kept onshore, including healthcare and government data.

“Microsoft has always been a company that has cared about helping people reach their full potential. Our mission remains the same but we are now doing it in a mobile-first, cloud-first world,” she said.

“We believe that creating the most complete cloud involves more than just technology. It requires a world-class ecosystem, which includes the thousands of Australian partners that we work with every day to deliver innovative solutions.”

The announcement follows Microsoft’s October launch of Azure Geo, its cloud services platform, in Australia.

Australian organisations including KordaMentha, Sydney Water and Austbrokers Holdings have already adopted one or both of the cloud-based offerings.

Advisory and investment firm KordaMentha plans to use Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online across all devices, services and platforms used by its employees. Sydney Water recently completed the rollout of Office 365 to its more than 3000 staff and delivery partners. Austbrokers Holdings is adapting the Dynamics CRM suite to better utilise its big data pools.

Ovum is predicting that cloud-based CRM will become a more attractive proposition for organisations in 2015 as a result of increases in cloud-based industry-specific objects, workflows and best practices.

In a report published by the research firm this week, Ovum asserted that a move to the cloud will be one of the major trends to watch for the CRM sector. Another key trend will involve increases in cloud-based industry-specific objects, workflows and best practices.

Ovum also expects companies to add a wide variety of apps, Internet of Things and wearable devices to their customer engagement mix over the year.

Organisations that succeed with CRM understand that value must be delivered to customers to develop an enduring customer relationship, according to Jeremy Cox, Ovum principal analyst for customer engagement.

“Underpinning successful CRM is strategy that is informed by deep insights into the customer and all the forces shaping their expectations, behaviours, wants and needs,” he said. This involves creating an approach to customer engagement that spans the entire organisation.

“To be successful with CRM, firms need a genuine customer-centred philosophy and values that drive the right behaviours. The individual with the ultimate responsibility for creating the right conditions for this to happen is the CEO, not the VP of marketing, sales or service.”

More than 60% of enterprise respondents to a recent Ovum survey said they expect to increase investments in customer-focused IT during 2015, up by almost 20% from 2014. The number of companies planning to increase investment by more than 6% has meanwhile more than doubled from 7 to 18% over the same period.

Image courtesy of Robert Scoble under CC