To enable easy access to cost effective business productivity solutions on the cloud, Microsoft Corporation on Wednesday announced commercial availability of Microsoft Office 365 in India.

This cloud based office suite could be availed at price $2 per user per month, (excluding applicable taxes), which would allow SMBs and enterprise customers to access Microsoft’s popular e-mail, collaboration, conferencing and productivity capabilities online.

Speaking at the launch, Sanket Akerkar, managing director, Microsoft Corporation India said, ‘Microsoft Office 365, provides all of the familiar enterprise class productivity solutions on a flexible usage and payment model, delivering streamlined communication with high availability, comprehensive security and simplified IT management. Customers who have already started using the services are realizing savings from reduced hardware, software and operational costs. In a nutshell, it allows them to do more with less.”

The Office 365 plan for Small Businesses is optimised for organisations with 25 users or less, and delivers a full range of productivity, communications and collaboration capabilities to meet their business needs. At approximately $6 per user per month, this plan includes Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online.

For larger organizations, there is a range of Office 365 plans to address different usage scenarios as well as deliver a more comprehensive set of capabilities for both information workers as well as field forces.  These plans start for as little as $2 for basic e-mail to $27 per user per month.

“There were many reasons why we we’ve decided to go with Microsoft’s cloud services. With the services for us the real clincher was the cost effectiveness and easy and smooth adaptability. The robust security, reliability, and control that Microsoft offers on the cloud has met all our expectations”, said Mr. Anil Garg, CIO, Dabur (India)

Customers can access the entire Office 365 suite directly from http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/office365/online-software.aspx and pay a use-based monthly subscription fee, and thus manage their IT needs cost effectively (lower capex).

Over the last 45 days, more than 12000 organizations, have signed up for Office 365 trials. Globally over 200000 customers have signed up, creating one of Microsoft’s largest beta programs for businesses.  For the first time ever, customers can also avail of Microsoft Office, the world’s most popular productivity offering, on subscription basis off the cloud.