Office 365 adds 22 Additional Markets, New Features and Continues Record Growth Rate.

Office 365 is proud to announce trial availability for customers in 22 additional markets (full list below), including Turkey, South Africa, Taiwan and Argentina. We also recently launched full commerce capabilities in Brazil, Russia and South Korea. So whether you are a customer doing business from the Arctic Circle or Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn, you now have the ability to use Office 365 to power your business from the cloud.   

Customers in these markets are in good company as just five months after its release, Office 365 is being adopted eight times faster than its predecessor. More than 90 percent of Office 365 customers are small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, while over 40% of the Top 100 Brands (according to Interbrand) use Office 365 or related cloud productivity services from Microsoft.

In addition to expanding our geographic reach, we’ve added more than 30 new updates to Office 365, many of them a direct response to customer feedback. You can find all information our new ‘Feature Updates’ Wiki in the Office 365 community.  Here are a few key updates:

• Support for SharePoint Business Connectivity Services - Businesses can now connect critical line-of-business applications, such as CRM or SAP software, in a familiar SharePoint interface.
• Windows Phone 7.5 Support - End users can access and update documents in SharePoint Online from anywhere using their Windows Phone.
• Self-Serve Password Reset - IT Admins gain easier security resets with our a Password Reset Tool.
• Lync for Mac - Mac users continue to gain features including full Lync client for instant messaging chats, and presence information in Office applications.  They can now also host voice and video conferences with just like their PC based counterparts.
• Office Web App Preview in Outlook Web Access (OWA) – Users can now display Office document attachments in Outlook Web Access for easier on the go edit and review.

For a full list of Office 365 updates, click here.

Among the companies that have recently chosen Office 365 are the leading fashion magazine Group Marie-Claire, which encourages a mobile work environment. “With the service, we have the added benefit of working together with familiar tools on almost any device, and can make quicker decisions when needed,” says Philippe Chapier, IT Manager for Group Marie-Claire.

Global brand Campbell Soup Company also will also standardize on Office 365 as a way to improve collaboration among its core business groups. Joe Spagnoletti, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Campbell Soup Company shared. “We’re betting on the cloud—and Office 365—as we prepare to build a highly collaborative workplace where employees across our global offices can all work together and communicate in seamless fashion.”

Do you have a new favorite feature or are excited to be a part of our new geographic expansion?  Share your story now on Twitter or Facebook. 

Andrew Kisslo, Group Product Manager, Office 365

New Markets: Argentina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Iceland, Indonesia, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and UAE