Michelle Simmons, Ge-neral Manager, Emerging Markets, and Byron Rader, General Manager, Office Division, for Microsoft Asia Pacific were in Nepal to launch Microsoft Office 365, a full cloud service. Kriti Bhuju of Republica talked to them about Microsoft’s activities and what Office 365 offers. Excerpts:
You have launched Office 365 based on a subscription model. In a country like Nepal where pirated versions are used, do you think people will really pay for it?
We are trying to ensure that users get a high value at the very minimum of prices. People can choose the type of subscription based on their needs… they can subscribe for only the few number of people who really work on Microsoft Office. People do not need to have a server for this and as the cost of having and running a server is even, we think they will subscribe. Once they subscribe, they will get to know the benefits of having genuine software.
What will be your marketing strategy in Nepal?
For commercial customers, we are providing various new add-ons and updates for free. For the general consumers, we provide the opportunity to use it in five different devices. We have our partners here who will be effectively promoting Office 365.
Do the customers have to remove their currently installed version of Microsoft Office or can they use both simultaneously?
Customers using any version of Microsoft Office can easily sign up for Office 365. They can keep both the versions on their devices but once they start using Office 365 -- which has all the previous features and additional features -- they will remove the older versions themselves.
What are the benefits of using Office 365?
Office 365 facilitates online and offline access, and enables working from anywhere, anytime, and across all devices -- also including mobile devices running on iOS and Android -- with a 1 TB storage for One Drive, which will be made unlimited soon. It also provides a 50 GB mailbox. Office 365 delivers the optimal benefit of the cloud such as productivity, familiarity, security, social collaboration and IT control.
One can work offline and be sure that when they connect to the Internet all their work will automatically sync so that all the documents are up to date.
What potential do you see in the Nepali market and what are your expectations?
We carried out a research for this market before launching our products. As many business houses have shown commitment, we are very optimistic about our products in this market. As the available bandwidth here is enough for using Office 365, we hope to double our business in Nepal every year. We are also having talks to work with government offices here in Nepal.
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What pushed you to acquire a mobile manufacturing brand and why did you choose Nokia while Samsung is doing better in terms of market share?
Mobility is a big aspect to provide productivity to our customers. We were eager to work with a third party for mobile and Nokia became the perfect one for us in main aspects. Samsung was expensive for us to acquire and we bought Nokia. We are closely working with Samsung and Apple as Office 365 is cross-platform compatible. In Samsung Galaxy S6, Office 365 is pre-installed.
Is anything there in the pipeline for Nepal?
We will launch an entirely new product every three years. Besides, we are bringing the Lumia 640 and Skype for Business soon in the Nepali market.
