Microsoft and GoDaddy partner to offer Office 365 tools to small-businesses

Early in 2013, Redmond-based software giant, Microsoft, extended its Office 365 subscription to small-and medium-sized businesses. It will now be partnering with GoDaddy to continue and push the same via a new partnership announced, by the two companies on Monday. GoDaddy, the web-hosting and domain name company will offer Microsoft's suite of productivity tools to its small-business customers, including the ability to easily connect users' domain names to Office's email services. It also brings the full suite of Office's productivity software, including shared calendars, cloud storage and instant messaging.

"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, further adding, "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."

The strategic agreement between Microsoft and GoDaddy provides small businesses with access to professional email connected to their domain names, cloud storage and a full suite of Microsoft productivity solutions. Also with GoDaddy, users are promised to receive around-the-clock live customer service. As part of the agreement, Microsoft created a unique offering of domain-based email and storage especially built with GoDaddy's very small businesses in mind.

"We're excited that GoDaddy has chosen to exclusively offer Office 365 to its small-business customers, giving them easy and supported access to productivity tools being used by some of the most successful businesses in the world," said John Case, corporate vice president, Microsoft Office, adding, "GoDaddy's relationship with small businesses combined with Office 365, the fastest-growing Microsoft product in history, will help bring the benefits of Office 365 and modern cloud services to even more companies, whether they're seeking to modernise how they do business or simply starting up."

The move comes a little over a year after Blake Irving, a former Microsoft executive, took the helm as GoDaddy's new CEO, where he's focused on expanding its support for small businesses. GoDaddy serves 12 million customers globally. Microsoft estimates that there are 28 million small-businesses in the US alone and over 125 million worldwide. Of the 28 million businesses in the USA, 92 percent have fewer than four employees.

According to a global study by Boston Consulting Group, commissioned by Microsoft, if more small and medium-sized businesses adopted the latest in IT tools, it could potentially boost their revenues by a combined $770 billion and create more than 6 million jobs. Office 365 from GoDaddy is currently available in the US and Canada, and will expand globally within the next three months.