Sprint Nextel Corporation has posted the following release to its Newsroom website:
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), August 20, 2012 - Providing collaboration and mobility tools across a diverse workforce efficiently and affordably has never been easier. Today cloud-enabled Microsoft Office 365 offered by Sprint (NYSE: S) is available for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Sprint also has launched Productivity Suites that bundle enterprise-class communication, collaboration, security, and storage tools with ongoing IT support, offering businesses a comprehensive solution so their employees can collaborate and be more productive while in the office and on the go.
Sprint simplifies the purchase, early life, and ongoing support processes with its unique premium Carefree Cloud, "white glove" migration and onboarding assistance, along with online support resources and a user friendly portal to manage the services. Carefree Cloud is available with all Office 365 plans offered by Sprint at no additional charge (when used within the first 90 days of purchase) so companies have the flexibility to receive the level of migration and ongoing support they need. Tech-savvy customers can use the "Migration 1 2 3" self-serve tool to transition to the new solutions on their own, should they choose. For customers who may not have access to IT help, Sprint can provide them with "white glove" step-by-step assistance to walk them through the migration of all applications and users to Office 365 including end-to-end setup on all devices.
With plans starting at just $6 per user per month, businesses will enjoy predictable monthly costs with no up-front infrastructure expense, pay-as-you-go plans and savings by bundling all of the necessary tools … as well as a single bill and single point-of-contact for all Sprint-bundled services (pricing excludes taxes and surcharges).
Sprint offers a variety of plans to meet the needs of businesses, including those with the core capabilities of Office 365 such as:
- Office 365 Professional, which includes access to Exchange, SharePoint, Lync Online, and Office Web applications.
- Office 365 Enterprise includes the items above plus the additional features of Active Directory synchronization, archiving capabilities and IT policy management.
- Office 365 Enterprise Plus adds a subscription to Office Professional Plus 2010 desktop for up to five devices, and unlimited storage for email and archiving.
In addition, Productivity Suites from Sprint build on the features of Office 365 by adding extended technical support through IT Helpdesk from Sprint to keep a business up and running without the expense of a dedicated IT staff or outsourced consultant. The specifics of these plans include:
- The Productivity Suite adds IT Helpdesk to the Office 365 Professional plan. IT Helpdesk includes unlimited 24/7 remote and onsite technical support for operating system issues, software support and installation, and hardware diagnostics and troubleshooting, including most peripherals and mobile devices. It also includes a financially-backed service guarantee, computer protection software and unlimited secure online data backup.
- For businesses that need even more, Productivity Suite Plus provides all of the features of the Office 365 Enterprise Plus plan bundled with IT Helpdesk (as detailed above).
"With Sprint's focus on expanding our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio, our productivity suites were designed to help companies boost productivity and cost savings, allowing employees to make the most of cloud-based collaboration and communication tools with seamless mobile integration for anytime, virtually anywhere access from nearly any device," said John Dupree, senior vice president of business sales, Sprint. "It is all backed by our dependable and continually improving networks and the scalability to give businesses the flexibility needed to grow. Not to mention Sprint is the only national wireless carrier to offer truly unlimited data with no throttling for smartphones while on the Sprint network."
Bringing Office 365 to market quickly required close collaboration with Parallels and the deployment of its service delivery system, Parallels Automation. This comprehensive solution enables many of the features and use cases that differentiate Sprint's productivity suites in the marketplace.
"The complexity involved in migrating from one solution to another is a key barrier to wider adoption of cloud services. Sprint's Carefree Cloud service and IT Helpdesk offerings make it easier for businesses to switch over to cloud-based Office 365," said Melanie Posey, research vice president, IDC. "On-going technical support for Office 365, combined with IT Helpdesk options that meet specific needs, provide SMBs with flexible, cost-effective SaaS and IT support options that may have otherwise been out of reach."
For more information and to view a video about Sprint's offer with Microsoft Office 365 and productivity suites, visit www.sprint.com/office365.
This collaboration builds upon the expanding portfolio of cloud-based solutions that Sprint has been focused on launching this year. This portfolio includes Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) planned for launch in late 2012 and Sprint Complete Collaboration, a Unified-Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solution launched earlier this year. Sprint also is delivering an innovative private-label cloud services platform to wholesale customers today, enabling them to quickly deliver simple and affordable brand-name software services to SMBs.
Sprint Network Leadership
To ensure that demand for connectivity for converged and cloud-based solutions will be met, Sprint has embarked on a multiyear network initiative, Network Vision, designed to enhance customers' network experience with faster data speeds, improved voice quality and easier connectivity. Sprint expects to complete the majority of Network Vision by the end of 2013.
About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 56 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2012 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint No. 1 among all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all 47 industries, during the last four years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in its 2011 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation's greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.
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