Microsoft Office 365 Beta - Australia - unable to create account

I’ve been watching Microsoft’s Office 365 for a while with the view of reviewing the service for my clients. What hasn’t quite sat right is the beta is not available for Australia. It states it is available for Australia but when you go to sign up you can’t select Australia.

I then read the following in the community blog.

Office 365 will not be available to Australia until GA (General Availability) and at that point it will only be available through Telstra, our Australian Partner.... Read More

 

If Microsoft are doing a special deal so the service is only available through Telstra they will lose a lot of business in Australia. I didn’t provide BPOS to clients as I felt in my previous dealings with Telstra both as a business and individually, the level of service I require for my clients wasn’t acceptable.

Sadly if it is true that Microsoft is only going to offer Office 365 in Australia using Telstra as their partner, it will make it very hard for me to recommend the service. I can understand that Telstra brings a huge customer base to Microsoft, but I feel Microsoft is being short-sighted by not providing the service in the same way as they are providing it to the many countries and regions listed. Our neighbour New Zealand is being provided with the ability to sign up to the beta.

If you’re in Australia and are thinking of signing up for Office 365 then wait for a while and see what Microsoft decides to do. For me if Microsoft don’t provide the service direct it will put me in a situation where I probably won’t be able to recommend the service because of my previous experience with support issues. At a minimum I will need to perform extensive testing and a lengthy trial period before considering Office 365 for clients.

My suggestion to clients is be patient and wait and see what happens.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au