GoDaddy, Microsoft Team up on Office Products

On Tuesday, Microsoft and GoDaddy announced a partnership that will bring Microsoft services to GoDaddy’s 10.8 million small business customers.   As part of the strategic partnership, GoDaddy’s small business clients will gain access to professional email connected to their domain names, as well as cloud storage. Three tiers of plans –priced at $3.99, $8.99  and $12.49 monthly – will allow business owners to access Office 365 apps. The two top tiers includes web apps for Word and Excel, and the highest-priced plan offers access to mobile apps.   “GoDaddy’s relationship with small businesses combined with Office 365, the fastest-growing Microsoft product in history, will help bring the benefits of Office 365 and modern cloud services to even more companies, whether they’re seeking to modernize how they do business or simply starting up,” said John Case, Microsoft Office corporate vice president, in a statement released Tuesday.   GoDaddy’s Senior Vice President of Business Applications Steven Aldrich says the partnership will provide necessary and untapped services to the company’s small business customers.   “Less than 20% have domain email addresses,” says Aldrich. Additionally, the Office 365 service will resonate with GoDaddy customers, as over 95% have familiarity with applications like Microsoft Word.   “This will bring the benefits [of Office apps] to the cloud,” says Aldrich. The Microsoft partnership will replace GoDaddy’s internally developed email product and workspace tools.