A New Zealand IT company has rolled out a unique version of Microsoft’s Office 365 which it claims will save small business users thousands of dollars.
Upper Hutt-based Layer3 has designed a Kiwi-ised Microsoft Office 365 portal that it claims is the next step in cloud computing.
Not only will it enable users to ditch their small business server, but they’ll also be able to ditch their expensive Microsoft user licenses.
CEO, Hayden Kirk, claims Layer3’s offering will create significant cost-savings and efficiency gains for smaller companies.
“Not only are we supplying the document storage facilities, but the unique bit is that we’re also supplying all the Windows programs and applications that you need to work on your documents and manage your systems.
“Users don’t need to have their own Windows programs or applications, which generates significant savings in licenses.”
Ironically, he calls the offering back-to-the-future computing.
“We’re taking users back to the days when everything – documents, programs, systems files, the whole lot – was stored on a big mainframe in the basement and you did all your work at your desk through an access terminal.
“Then along came PCs and laptops and all the storage and the programs migrated to the device itself. And with that came significant purchase costs and maintenance issues.”
Kirk says the internet has allowed users to go back-to-the-future; they port in to the Layer3 cloud ‘mainframe’, use the embedded Windows 8 programs and systems files to work on their documents and port out of the facility when finished.
He says the new service will make full Windows 8 functionality available for the first time to iPad and Android tablet users.
Layer 3 is based in Upper Hutt and has a staff of four which it intends to significantly increase when it expands its services to Auckland.
It was a finalist in the Innovation category of the 2013 Westpac Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.
