Vodafone is to offer business customers a complete communications and IT solution with Microsoft Office 365 alongside its telephony service, Vodafone One Net. 

The combined offer will give businesses access to enterprise-level productivity and telecoms services on a more affordable, rental basis, says Vodafone. The aim is to give workers in SMEs greater ability to work remotely and on different devices.

Tom Craig, Vodafone business services director, says: “Small and medium sized businesses are the backbone of the European economy and it is imperative that we provide them with the tools to compete with big business in a challenging marketplace where customers expect fast responses 24/7. The combination of our fixed and mobile communications service with Office 365 helps deliver the benefits of agility, productivity and flexibility. This allows firms to respond extremely quickly to queries and puts them on a level playing field with larger companies.”

Vodafone One Net, which has over 1.4m users across Europe, is Vodafones business telephony product, while Microsoft Office 365 gives businesses cloud access to Microsoft productivity tools including email and calendar, Microsoft Office Web Apps, collaboration tools, instant messaging and online meetings.

Marco Limena, VP of business services and operator channels at Microsoft, says: “Office 365 is our next generation cloud productivity service, combining the best productivity solutions in the market. Vodafone is an experienced partner in offering integrated communications and IT services to businesses, helping firms to do more with less. By extending their portfolio to include Office 365, Vodafone is set to give businesses a further boost in todays challenging economic climate.” 

Rollout for the new solution will begin in selected European markets later this year, says Vodafone.