Bharti Airtel and Microsoft enter into a strategic partnership

Company News

New Delhi, November 14

Microsoft and Bharti Airtel, today announced a strategic partnership that will offer a range of software and services for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India. The partnership will begin by offering to Indian SMBs Microsoft Solutions for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration. It will also offer other hosted applications like CRM, Accounting, ERP, Unified communications and select Microsoft ISV applications.

In unique software cum service solution model, Airtel is working in close co-operation with Microsoft to provide enterprise-class software bundled with connectivity solutions to small businesses that do not have dedicated IT resources. This service is predominantly aimed at companies with five or more employees, and is expected to be available in January 2007. These companies will now be able to enjoy the same experience as large enterprise customers without initial investments using a pay-as-you-go model.

This new professional messaging and collaboration service will give small businesses the ability to access secure enterprise grade e-mail, secure instant messaging and intranet portals with rich collaboration capabilities, whether they are in the office or on the road. This follows the strategic partnership between Airtel and Microsoft that enables Airtel customers to access corporate email via direct push technology using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile ® 5.0 platform. Managed entirely by Airtel, these services will allow businesses to communicate more efficiently, reduce administrative and IT overheads and connect employees with business-critical information whenever and wherever they need it.

"SMB vertical in India have huge potential and offer an exciting opportunity for Bharti. We estimate total telecom spend in the SMB space to be around Rs. 18,000 Crores. IDC estimates that IT spending by SMBs would grow by 17% which is the highest in Asia Pacific. With integrated capabilities across wire-line, wireless, data & managed services, Bharti is in a unique position to be the preferred partner to provide Telecom and Networking solutions to this segment. We are pleased to partner with Microsoft to offer to Indian SMBs this unique business model." said, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises.

“Microsoft is thrilled to be working with Bharti to deliver advanced, enterprise-class features once reserved only for corporations with extensive IT budgets,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "We believe that small and medium businesses will be able to see the benefits of this solution very quickly."

For further information, please contact:

Deeba Ali/ Prem Subedi/ Nidhi Mehra

Rediffusion DYR Public Relations

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