Microsoft launches Back2Business Solution Boxes for SMBs & Startups in India

During the ongoing coronavirus crisis, Indian SMBs (small and medium businesses) are facing various challenges in running their operations smoothly. These challenges include access to remote working solutions with secure and scalable environment, disaster recovery and advanced security with device management and threat protection. Microsoft has announced the launch of the Back2Business Solution Boxes to help SMBs maintain business continuity and start their cloud adoption journeys.

Needless to mention, COVID-19 has created havoc all over the world. Many countries are currently going through economic slowdown and global crisis like layoffs and increasing unemployment. Startups and small and medium businesses are no exceptions. They are facing more challenges due to limited capital and resources to keep the operations going.

To provide support in keeping these businesses running through any interruptions and reducing on-premise infrastructure management costs, Microsoft has launched the Back2Business Solution Boxes on May 12. It will help Indian small and medium enterprises or SMBs continue their operations without interruptions. These offerings aim to boost employee productivity and improve customer engagement.

Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 11,000 employees.  They provide sales and marketing, research, development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

Also Read: 10 ways Startups should be Prepared for the Coronavirus Crisis

Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local data centers to accelerate digital transformation across Indian start-ups, businesses, and government organizations. To help Indian SMBs, Microsoft has decided to bring together offerings across Azure and Modern Workplace. Azure is a cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications.

Harish Vellat, Senior Director of Small and Mid-Corporate Business, Microsoft India,

“Small and medium enterprises are an integral part of the Indian economy. We’ve witnessed their resilience and entrepreneurial energy in action as we build the new normal in these difficult times. In our efforts to support these businesses operate today without constraints and be future-ready with the best-in-class technological platform and solutions, the Back2Business Solution Boxes offer speed in deployment and usage and flexibility with pay-as-you-go pricing, along with our commitment to privacy and security.”

Back2Business Solution Boxes

Microsoft will provide near-term challenges through COVID-19 offerings around Windows Virtual Desktop and Microsoft Teams. Microsoft has also designed some solution packages to accelerate the cloud adoption journeys of SMBs. These are designed to help increase legacy systems and migrate workloads to Azure or modernize apps and websites. These solution boxes are standard and easy to customize according to requirements of customers.

The boxes come in four variants -

• Starter: Designed for small organizations that require remote working and collaboration solutions in a secure environment.
• Booster: Developed for mid-sized businesses that need both online and desktop applications, customer management, backup service, and a secure disaster recovery strategy.
• Modern Business: Designed for SMB customers who require a simple security foundation along with their productivity suite.
• Advanced: Developed for SMBs that need advanced security capabilities, cost reduction and better infrastructure management.

Also Read: How Covid-19 can Affect the CoWorking Industry in India

Microsoft mentioned that their partners have the additional flexibility of customizing the boxed packages with their own value offerings for migration and deployment. Microsoft’s partner ecosystem is at the centre of delivering technologies and driving business transformation for its customers. Together with its partners, Microsoft is committed to helping the small and medium business community in India navigate the current challenges and scale up their operations seamlessly.