Microsoft announced worldwide availability of Office 365 Home Premium, a reinvention of the company’s flagship Office product line for its consumers in Pakistan and 161 other markets in 21 languages.
Office 365 Home Premium is a cloud service designed for busy households and people juggling ever-increasing work and family responsibilities. The new offering includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications; works across up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs and Macs; and comes with extra SkyDrive storage and Skype calling — all for US$ 79.99 for an annual subscription, the equivalent of US$ 6.67 per month.
“The New Office is full of features that will allow people to access information from wherever they are allowing them to effectively manage their work life and find time to do things they want to strike the requisite balance” said Amir Rao – the New Country Manager for Microsoft Pakistan.
Microsoft also announced that it will now deliver many new features and services to the cloud first, transforming the company’s traditional three-year release cycle. Now, new features and services stream to subscribers as soon as they are ready, keeping subscribers always up to date while eliminating the hassles of upgrading.
“This is a major leap forward,” said Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division. “People’s needs change rapidly, and Office 365 Home Premium will change with them.”
“Office 365 was chosen as the productivity cloud platform of choice by Serena Hotels Pakistan, as it enables our employees to work effectively from different locations and improves their productivity by giving them access to the latest versions of familiar tools securely from any device. This is key for us to improve internal collaboration which ultimately will result in improved customer service,” said Moiz Ismaili, Senior Manager IT, Serena Hotels Pakistan which has chosen Office 365 for their email solution.
Globally, the company also released updated versions of the traditional Office suite: Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013 and Office Professional 2013. Office 365 for businesses will be released globally with new capabilities on Feb. 27.
Time to Do the Things You Want
In a recent global survey, nearly 60 percent of people said they don’t have the time to do the things they want to do, and more than 80 percent said they could save one or more hours a day if they were better organized. Office 365 Home Premium is designed to help people be more productive from virtually anywhere and find the flexibility to do the things they want.
“Between kids and career, I’m never completely at home or completely at work — and thanks to technology, that suits me just fine,” said Jen Singer, an author, blogger and mom of two teen boys. “With Office 365 Home Premium, I can work around my kids’ schedules, so I can drive the soccer carpool, coordinate errands while at a doctor’s office and still hit my deadlines at work. And, with one subscription for everyone in my family, it’s an absolute steal.”
To help people find more time to do the things they want, Microsoft is introducing Time to 365 (http://www.office.com/timeto365), a new crowd-sourced website where people can find and share tips, tricks, ideas and inspiration from around the world. Contributors include experts such as “techorating” pro Janna Robinson (http://www.jannarobinson.com) and everyday working parents who have found ways to simplify their lives. Tips on the site include, for example, an idea for organizing your grocery list with OneNote on your phone, a pointer on how to pick the right-sized TV for your living room and ways to use Office applications to help plan a child’s birthday party.
