C Spire is helping companies from small businesses to enterprises in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee boost productivity and improve remote access with Microsoft Office 365’s secure, cloud-based tools like Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and the Office app suite.
The diversified telecommunications and technology services company also is touting its integration package, which helps businesses maximize their return on investment with advice, dedicated 24/7 local support and an easy-to-use self-service portal.
C Spire is targeting more than 200,000 firms in seven industry sectors across the three states that have shifted most of their business online as a global pandemic has accelerated the transition to a “new normal” that emphasizes the importance of easy, simple and intuitive self-managed portals.
“As Covid-19 has impacted every aspect of our work and life, we’ve narrowed our focus so that we can offer simple and fast solutions and Microsoft Office 365 and its app suite of secure, cloud-based tools is an important part of our success,” said Allen McIntosh, general manager of the C Spire Business division.
McIntosh said the Microsoft Office 365 suite has been embraced and adopted by more than a million businesses worldwide, including 650,000 in the United States. “We’ve seen 10 years’ worth of digital transformation in just one year,” he added, noting that videoconferencing applications like Teams have grown exponentially during the pandemic.
Microsoft added 95 million users in 2020 as Teams became one of the most popular apps during the COVID-19 pandemic, growing to 115 million daily users, according to stat tracker Business of Apps. More than 500,000 firms now use Microsoft Teams and the company generated an estimated $6.8 billion from Teams in revenue last year.
“We need to leverage the growing popularity of Microsoft Teams, which now has over 75 million daily users, with flexible plans to match changing business needs while continuing to provide the expert advice, tailored solutions and 24/7/365 service and support that firms expect,” McIntosh said, noting that easy migration and self-service are also key factors.
C Spire is also working to update and improve its customer self-service online portal. “In 2021, businesses do most of their work online, so it’s critically important and table stakes in today’s business world,” McIntosh said. “Plus, having a self-managed portal makes us easy to do business with, which is central to our long-term success.”