Payments
and technology company MasterCard Worldwide and technology giant Microsoft
extended their pledge to increase technology and payment services to small
businesses through a new strategic initiative that sees MasterCard become a
member of the partner program for Office 365, a cloud productivity service that
gives small businesses access to email, documents, contacts and calendars from
anywhere on almost any device.
MasterCard
will provide a 10 percent savings to eligible small business cardholders when
they purchase Office 365 through the MasterCard Easy Savings Program. The
MasterCard Easy Savings Program provides eligible small business cardholders
with savings on popular services that help them run their businesses.
“Our
goal is to help small businesses thrive, and Office 365 can help them do just
that by providing technology that is trusted by many of the most successful
businesses in the world,” said Giovanni Mezgec, general manager of Microsoft
Office/Office 365. “Partners like MasterCard bring Office 365 to millions more
small businesses and help them reduce costs while gaining access to critical
business services.”
“MasterCard
is committed to providing small businesses with innovative products and
services that improve efficiencies and help them achieve their full potential,”
said Eugene De Silva, senior business leader of small and medium enterprise
global products at MasterCard Worldwide. “The strength of our knowledge,
insights and offerings will continue to drive real value for small businesses
in two specific areas that are core to their business needs—payments and
technologies.”
Earlier
in December, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft announced a partnership to jointly
offer private and public cloud solutions for organizations under a four-year initiative.
Those solutions will break down into three separate verticals: Private Cloud,
involving a combination of HP Enterprise Cloud Services and Microsoft cloud
products, including Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and
Lync Server 2010 delivered via HP data centers; Public Cloud, primarily
Microsoft's Office 365 cloud-productivity software; and a Hybrid Solution
wherein HP resells Office 365 with HP Enterprise Cloud Services.
On
Oct. 11, MasterCard and Microsoft, in partnership with Dell, announced Shwood
Handcrafted Wooden Eyewear as the winner of the “America’s Favorite Small
Business” contest. The contest, created to spotlight the success of small
business owners, invited businesses with 25 or fewer employees to create a short
video explaining why they should be America’s Favorite Small Business.
Microsoft Partner 
