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For Business
October 20, 2015

Surface Pro 4 is the fastest Surface adopted in business ever



New channel, programs and offerings to meet this demand and help businesses accelerate adoption of Surface and Windows 10.

Surface-Pro-4-Featured

On the Surface team, we have been inspired by the ways our business customers are using our devices to push the limits of performance and productivity. We’re humbled by the increasing number of businesses that choose Surface to help their employees get more done in an array of industries including doctors, bankers, commercial pilots, retailers, hotel operators, teachers, engineers and manufacturers. Together with our partner community and our business customers, it’s been a big year, and Surface Pro 3 has resonated with businesses in a big way.

“In less than a year, Surface became the top-selling Windows tablet at CDW, and we expect that success to continue with the new release.”

Matt Troka, Senior Vice President, CDW

In addition, to meet further customer demand, we announced in July that we would be expanding the business channel to add more partners selling Surface globally and then, in September, we unveiled the Surface Enterprise Initiative to deliver word-class services and support to enterprise customers along with Surface.

At the same time, in a few short months Windows 10 is off to a tremendous start with more than 110 million devices already running Windows 10, and eight million business PCs already running Windows 10.

On the heels of introducing Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book at our Windows Devices event earlier this month, we’re excited to announce further updates on the progress we’re making to ready the channel, and how we are matching the device quality with improved purchasing, support and servicing experience for our business customers when buying Surface in volume.

Surface now available through 5,000 business resellers – more than ever before

In the past we’ve heard from a lot of customers that they’d like to see more partners offering Surface – particularly for SMBs, educational institutions and state and local government (SLG) departments. These customers have particular reseller needs either based on preference, contract or location.

In July, we announced we were committed to moving from hundreds of resellers to thousands. We are happy to announce that since we initiated expansion, we’ve made great progress on that commitment, and our network of business resellers now numbers around 5,000 across the 30 global markets where Surface is available to our business customers. Take a look at what one of our new resellers has to say:

“SCW has seen significant interest in Surface, particularly in the public sector where our customers value its unique form factor and seamless integration in their Windows environments. Surface is leading our customers into a new era of mobility and productivity. We’re happy to now be in a position to fulfil their needs with Surface, and expect this opportunity to continue with the introduction of Windows 10 and the new Surface devices.”

Jennifer Schreuders, Vice President of Vendor Alliance, Southern Computer Warehouse

Achieving this breadth and reach is important because this allows us to make Surface and Windows 10 available to more customers than ever before. This means that we are better prepared now for the scale of demand we expect. The introduction of new Surface devices alongside the introduction of Windows 10 represents a big moment for us, our customers and our partners. We are ready!

Surface Enterprise Initiative adds an enterprise warranty offer and a business device trade-in program to accelerate adoption of Surface and Windows 10

Our enterprise customers told us they love Surface, especially how it improved both productivity and mobility. But the largest customers with a global footprint also expressed a need for a broader set of options in terms of service, management and support. Many told us they wanted to buy Surface from one partner, in one transaction, and have devices deployed all over the world with a single support and warranty SLA. So in September, as part of the Surface Enterprise Initiative – we announced that Dell and HP would be reselling Surface and bringing their enterprise-grade support offerings to the device. We’re excited about what these partnerships could mean, as are customers.

“With the launch of Surface Pro 3, we found a laptop replacement alternative that met the business requirements of our mobile users and added Surface Pro to our corporate standards list. The prospect of now buying Surface through Dell gives us the advantage of single discussions, and the global consistent delivery, support and service we require. We now can purchase Surface Pro in a way that meets the size and complexity of our fulfilment needs.”

Tom Kooser, Vice President and CTO Americas, LVMH

Today we are pleased to announce two new additions to the Surface Enterprise Initiative designed to accelerate adoption of Surface and Windows 10.

  • Beginning early in 2016, we will introduce Microsoft Complete for Enterprise – a new enterprise warranty and service offering available to Surface customers via our commercial resellers. The new enterprise warranty offering includes four elements that our larger enterprise customers have asked for:
    • Ability to pool warranty claims by company versus individual devices
    • Allowing for warranty claims against non-bootable devices – helpful when customers have data security policies that either require a device to be wiped of all confidential information or require destruction of the hard drive prior to the device being returned under the warranty
    • Next day air in the U.S. for fastest possible device replacement, and a similar rapid replace processing for markets outside the U.S.
    • An on-boarding center to ensure a premium experience within the first 30 days for both IT and end users – Microsoft will assist IT staff to get setup with warranty and support processes as well as provide online training for their employees to get productive as fast as possible.

At the end of the day, business customers care about a quality device but also want to ensure they can get their users productive and then keep them productive with the right infrastructure for fulfilment and service/support.

  • We are also happy to announce the arrival of the Business Device Trade-in Program. Many customers have told us that they want to upgrade to Surface and Windows 10, but have invested in devices and need to maximize the value they receive from those assets. With the Business Device Trade-in Program we make it simple. This is different from other trade-in offers in that it is a permanent program for business customers, rather than a limited time promotion.With 24 hour quotes, prepaid shipping labels and secure data wipe, business customers can trade their used business laptops, tablets, and phones for credit towards the purchase of new Surface devices. This offer will be available in the coming weeks to business customers in the U.S. and Canada, as well as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. In the coming weeks the offer will also be available in Australia, France, Germany and the UK. For all the details including any limits or restrictions that may apply, visit www.microsoft.cetradein.com.

Surface Pro 4 is the fastest Surface adopted in business

Since we unveiled the newest Surface devices at our event just two weeks ago, we have seen unprecedented interest from our business customers in Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. The promise of Surface Pro 4 for business customers is as true today as it has ever been for previous versions. And now with Surface Pro 4, business customers can take advantage of the thinnest, lightest, most powerful Surface Pro we’ve ever made.

Today, we are pleased and humbled to announce new business customers and leading educational institutions who have committed to buying Surface Pro 4, even before it is generally available. The number of customers adopting is more than any previous generation, and the customers span industries and sectors in the U.S. and abroad.

 

Financial Services The Carlyle Group A global alternative asset manager with $193 billion of assets under management.
USI Insurance Services Recognized nationally as a top-10 leader in insurance brokerage and consulting.
Retail Berkshire Hathaway Automotive One of the largest dealership groups in America.
Mobile Field Sales Land ‘O Lakes A growing, farm-owned food and agriculture cooperative serving more than 300,000 agricultural producers.
Wessanen (Netherlands) A leading company in the European market for healthy and sustainable food.
Energy Covanta One of the world’s largest owners and operators of infrastructure for the conversion of waste-to-energy.
Professional Services Clifford Chance (UK) One of the world’s pre-eminent law firms, with significant depth and range of resources across five continents.
Public Sector The Global Fund (Switzerland) Accelerating the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.
Education Brighton College International (UK) The international arm of Brighton College, one of the United Kingdom’s leading independent schools.
Sheffield Hallam University (UK) One of the largest universities in the UK, at the forefront in delivering across a wide range of subjects from sports science and engineering to humanities and arts.
University of Central Lancashire (UK) Recognized as an outstanding contributor to Information and Communication Technology, a Timers Higher Award Winner and a runner-up in the Guardian University Awards for the development of digital learning.

Of course, these customers have different requirements and are choosing Surface Pro 4 for many different reasons. But for all of our business customers, the value of Surface Pro comes down to cost savings when removing the need for both a laptop and an iPad, ability to run full Office and desktop apps and the strongest security and management with Windows 10.

The response from these early Surface Pro 4 business customers has been exciting to see. With the breadth coverage across our channel, and programs for enterprise customers through our Surface Enterprise Initiative, we’re in a position to deliver on customer demand in ways that have never been done before. We couldn’t be more excited for the next few months and are looking forward to welcoming more and more customers to the Surface family.

For more details about Surface in business, visit surface.com/business.

Thanks,

Cyril Belikoff
Senior Director – Microsoft Surface