Microsoft hails business adoption of Office 365

Enterprises and SMBs have bought into new service since its launch 18 months ago, says Steve Ballmer

Business adoption of Office 365 is rising swiftly, according to Microsoft, which claims that both enterprises and SMBs have shown a keen interest.

In a blog post, Steve Ballmer claimed that since its business launch 18 months ago, one in five of its global enterprise customers uses the Office 365 service, up from one in seven this time last year.

He claims that SMBs are adopting the software at a "rapid pace" and said a 150 per cent increase in SMB adoption of Office 365 has been noticed in the past 12 months.

While Microsoft launched its Home Premium version of Office on general availability yesterday, the business SKU will be available from 27 February.

In his blog post, Ballmer said that moving into the hardware arena was a huge step for the vendor. "Transforming from a software maker to a devices and services company requires us to make big, bold bets and push our business in new directions," he added.

Earlier this month, Microsoft UK readied the channel ahead of the Office launch and claimed that training and education for the new products had begun via its distribution partners.