Windows 10: Surface Enterprise Initiative Expands to Meet Business Mobility Needs

Brink · Jul 11, 2016

We launched the Surface Enterprise Initiative last year to help the world’s biggest businesses take advantage of Surface and the best enterprise solutions. Our largest global customers told us they wanted Surface, but needed the enterprise class services and support to let them easily purchase and deploy to their employees all over the world. So we partnered with Dell to meet that need and over 800 business customers have already purchased Surface devices directly from Dell. We have also continued to expand our own services, warranty and support offerings and to strengthen our partner ecosystem and customer offerings. In the past year we’ve gone from 200 partners in the channel to now 10,000 in our ecosystem.

We have been inspired by the way our customers are using our devices to push the limits of performance and productivity. So we kept pushing to drive new innovation into the Surface portfolio with the launch of Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. We continue to invest in our Surface family of products because we have seen how innovative devices shift people’s behavior, inspire ideas, catalyze collaboration, accelerate progress, and transform business. And in the past year the Surface business has grown from generating on the order of $1B in revenue in a year to $1B in revenue per quarter.

We know we can do more.
Today we are expanding the Surface Enterprise Initiative with a set of new partnerships and programs that will empower our customers to transform the way their people and the organizations work.
Industry Specific Solutions from IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton

Our customers want solutions, more than just apps built on a mobile OS. Our customers want the industry-leading security and productivity features of Windows 10 on Surface. Today we’re excited to announce two new partnerships with IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton to deliver industry specific solutions that will meet this need for our shared customers.
IBM will draw on its analytics and enterprise applications expertise to create new industry-specific solutions for financial services and consumer packaged goods(CPG)/retail companies that take advantage of the unique capabilities of Surface devices. IBM understands the specific challenges of these industries and will work with us to build the right set of solutions across devices, apps and services that will help bring greater mobility into their business, seamlessly blending existing infrastructure and Universal Windows applications on the backend with an easy-to-use, mobile frontend.

For example, IBM will develop an application for CPG and retail companies that puts Microsoft Power BI on Surface to bring decision makers closer to the data and analytics they need to optimize utilization of employee time. The app combines organizational and industry data in visualized diagrams and reports to provide insights that empower employees to make smarter staffing decisions that maximize productivity while minimizing costs. The functionality can also be extended to other aspects of the industry such as product management, sales management and demand forecasting.
“Many of our clients have requested mobile solutions for Surfaces that are tailored to their business needs,” said Murray Mitchell, global leader, Microsoft Services at IBM. “IBM will design Surface solutions that allow financial services and CPG employees to tap in to their company’s information on-the-go. We’ll apply experience of over 20 years as a Microsoft strategic partner to ensure the mobile apps blend with our client’s existing infrastructures creating dynamic, new mobile experiences uniquely suited to the needs of their employees. IBM is a recognized leader in enterprise computing, sitting at the center of a broad ecosystem of partners who, like Microsoft, aim to meet the needs of this market.”
Similarly, we are seeing strong demand for Surface within government and the public sector in general. Earlier this year, we announced that Surface has met the strict security and interoperability requirements to be fully certified for the U.S. Department of Defense. Today we are taking the next step in meeting the needs of Public Sector organizations with our new partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Booz Allen Hamilton will develop scalable and secure solutions for Governments, the Public Sector and Healthcare verticals. Booz Allen’s clients have very specific needs, in terms of app compatibility, security, confidentiality and multiple credentials. Booz Allen has chosen to partner with Surface to take advantage of the world class enterprise grade security, manageability and flexibility available only with the combination of Surface and Windows 10.
“Our goal is to deliver secure, end-to-end solutions to solve unique client challenges,” said Walton Smith, Booz Allen Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Solutions. “Our partnership with Microsoft relationship will give our clients access to solutions built with the powerful and portable Surface devices and with the most secure and high-performing operating system available today, Windows 10.”
New Surface Subscription Offering and Multi-National Purchasing Program

In addition, we’re happy to announce new programs to give business customers of all sizes added flexibility to purchase and deploy Surfaces – and to provide new opportunities to our partners. We’re introducing Surface as a Service, where our Cloud Solution Providers (who are also Surface Authorized Distributors) can now offer Surface devices through a managed service offering to all of our resellers and customers, alongside managed cloud services, Office 365, Windows 10, and relevant ISV software. This new offering faster device refresh, more flexible purchasing options, and ensures customers can have the latest Surface devices that evolve with the best Windows and Office have to offer. We launched this program with ALSO, a leading CSP out of Europe, and look forward to working with other partners to expand this program globally.

Likewise, we want to provide more purchasing options for our global customers. We are announcing our new Surface Multi-National Purchasing Program and authorizing four resellers – CDW, Insight, SHI and Zones – to provide multi-national customers Surface devices and accessories. This gives enterprise customers a more streamlined path for getting Surface on company-wide standards lists and for cross-country adoption for line of business scenarios. Additional resellers wishing to join the program should contact their local Partner Sales Executive.

These new programs and partnerships, combined with our strong partner ecosystem, provide great opportunities for our partners and customers alike. We continue to be inspired by how people are using Surface how businesses are fueling their digital transformation with Surface.
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Source: Surface Enterprise Initiative Expands to Meet Evolving Business Mobility Needs | Microsoft Devices Blog

Night Hawk · Jul 13, 2016

MS is also moving in another direction as well in regards to things going monthly.

Yes, Windows 10 subscriptions are coming, at least for enterprise

This reveals one way Microsoft plans to monetize Windows, but the company is mum about a consumer version.

Windows 10 Enterprise E3 offers what customers have been wondering about for some time: whether Microsoft would make Windows 10 a subscription service.

Mark Hachman | @markhachman
Senior Editor, PCWorld

Jul 12, 2016 10:02 AM

For over a year, Windows 10 customers have wondered whether Microsoft will offer Windows 10 as a service. On Tuesday, Microsoft confirmed that it would—though just for enterprises at the moment.

Beginning this fall, Microsoft will offer Windows 10 Enterprise E3, a special enterprise tier of Windows 10 that will cost $7 per user per month. Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, said cloud providers would now be able to offer three premier Microsoft services on a subscription basis: Microsoft’s Azure, Office 365, and now Windows 10.
Click to expand...

see full report

Gee that will mean I will still need a Pro pack later for the 7 HP to 10 Home system just upgraded to 10. At least the other mini tower with more put into hardwares initially as well as later that is went from 7 Pro to 10 Pro from the start. *Biggrin

The monthly business however will be not only limited to the Enterprise edition becoming a 10 monthly service but for the Mobile platform in particular to continue promoting the Surface line of things.

:)

R3ckl3ss · Jul 13, 2016

Phone 7 not for business

Because for the initial release MS have already stated that they are targetting the average user and not business.

They have also stated that during the course of 2011 they will start to expand on the Enterprise solutions for WP7

DaveM121 · Jul 13, 2016

Can I use Windows 10 Home edition for my Small Business

Yes you can use Windows 10 Home for business purposes without any fear of infringing any legal issues or copyright.

As long as Windows 10 home meets your needs, then you have no need to upgrade to Pro or Enterprise . . .

Windows 10: Surface Enterprise Initiative Expands to Meet Business Mobility Needs

Surface Enterprise Initiative Expands to Meet Business Mobility Needs

Surface Enterprise Initiative Expands to Meet Business Mobility Needs

Surface Enterprise Initiative Expands to Meet Business Mobility Needs

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