On Thursday, Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division, spoke to analysts at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference; here are some of the highlights from his comments (link):
On Office 2010 – “The results that we’ve had on the 2010 product across the board have been just phenomenal; it’s been the most popular version of Office ever.” Since launch, Microsoft has sold more than 200 million copies – or more than one every second.
On Lync, the company’s unified communications offering (product webpage here) – “[It’s] growing phenomenally well, with 30% growth last quarter; it’s just taking off… the scenarios we talked about for Skype inter-operating with Lync (when we actually did the acquisition) are still ones that we're very, very excited about... and we're working on it."
Office 365 (product webpage here) – it’s giving capabilities (like Exchange, SharePoint, etc.) to small and medium-sized businesses that enterprises have historically had “for the very first time.” Compare this to the current figures, with 32% of small and medium sized-businesses (SMBs) running Exchange (this figure is over 75% for enterprise customers) and just 20% running SharePoint.
SMBs account for 90% of the customer counts on Office 365; these are “people that we didn’t address before and a brand new market that we can expand into.” Since launch, 22 languages have been added to Office 365; the product now addresses about 95% of all businesses in the world.
On SharePoint (product webpage here) – “It was the fastest product in Microsoft history to $1 billion… the reason for the success of SharePoint is that it really satisfies the core needs that people have in an organization around finding others, finding content, sharing that content with others, and working collaboratively with others.”
Fighting for IT spend – Today, Microsoft competes for about 15% of global IT spend across their businesses; now they will be competing for more of that market, while simultaneously saving money for their customers; in the words of Mr. DelBene, “It’s kind of a win-win.”
Future Opportunities – “I’ve been in Office for quite a few years now, and I have never felt as bullish about the scenarios that are left untouched, that we haven’t actually talked about yet or invested in; and the development teams that we have are only limited by the amount of hours in the day in terms of the kind of innovation that we can drive.”
On Office 2010 – “The results that we’ve had on the 2010 product across the board have been just phenomenal; it’s been the most popular version of Office ever.” Since launch, Microsoft has sold more than 200 million copies – or more than one every second.
On Lync, the company’s unified communications offering (product webpage here) – “[It’s] growing phenomenally well, with 30% growth last quarter; it’s just taking off… the scenarios we talked about for Skype inter-operating with Lync (when we actually did the acquisition) are still ones that we're very, very excited about... and we're working on it."
Office 365 (product webpage here) – it’s giving capabilities (like Exchange, SharePoint, etc.) to small and medium-sized businesses that enterprises have historically had “for the very first time.” Compare this to the current figures, with 32% of small and medium sized-businesses (SMBs) running Exchange (this figure is over 75% for enterprise customers) and just 20% running SharePoint.
SMBs account for 90% of the customer counts on Office 365; these are “people that we didn’t address before and a brand new market that we can expand into.” Since launch, 22 languages have been added to Office 365; the product now addresses about 95% of all businesses in the world.
On SharePoint (product webpage here) – “It was the fastest product in Microsoft history to $1 billion… the reason for the success of SharePoint is that it really satisfies the core needs that people have in an organization around finding others, finding content, sharing that content with others, and working collaboratively with others.”
Fighting for IT spend – Today, Microsoft competes for about 15% of global IT spend across their businesses; now they will be competing for more of that market, while simultaneously saving money for their customers; in the words of Mr. DelBene, “It’s kind of a win-win.”
Future Opportunities – “I’ve been in Office for quite a few years now, and I have never felt as bullish about the scenarios that are left untouched, that we haven’t actually talked about yet or invested in; and the development teams that we have are only limited by the amount of hours in the day in terms of the kind of innovation that we can drive.”
