14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft itself is struggling to keep its head above water resorting to critical measures such as firing employees and cutting costs, but the company is confident that betting on software will ultimately help SMBs waterproof their business. The Redmond company indicated that 37% of SMBs planned to cut back on travel expenses, 34% on energy consumption, 32% on system management, and 30% were looking to boost customer experience and management through IT. In this regard, small businesses should turn to technology, the software giant advised.
“We believe that by betting on software, businesses can achieve greater productivity and cost savings, and operate smarter and more strategically, even in times of economic uncertainty. Taking a long-term approach and making the right investments and upgrades in times like these can position a company to take advantage of the next upswing by making an organization more efficient and flexible, and by making its IT infrastructure more reliable,” Vice President Michael Risse of Microsoft’s Worldwide Small and Midmarket Business Group stated.
Risse underlined that Microsoft had poured investments of over $6.5 billion on an annual basis into developing solutions tailored for SMBs customers. But in addition to the Redmond company's own software products tailored to the market, small businesses can also access software and technologies from over 400,000 of the company's partners.
“My favorite example is virtualization technology. Today many companies run several servers, and each of those servers may be dedicated to running one application, one function, or one workload. Virtualization enables the consolidation [of] those workloads into one physical server by creating multiple virtual images of an operating system, each running on its own,” Risse added. “By consolidating numerous environments into one physical box, you save power, you save air conditioning, you save IT cost because there’s only one machine to administer, and you save, of course, on the number of boxes you have to buy.”
However, virtualization is but one example. Risse revealed that the Office System could also contribute to increasing productivity in a variety of areas from communication to bookkeeping. The software giant is additionally offering Microsoft Office Live Small Business, Windows Essential Business Server and software-plus-service solutions.