Surface Enterprise Initiative Expands to Meet Evolving Business Mobility Needs

We launched the Surface Enterprise Initiative last year to help the world’s biggest businesses take advantage of Surface and the best enterprise solutions. Our largest global customers told us they wanted Surface, but needed the enterprise class services and support to let them easily purchase and deploy to their employees all over the world. So we partnered with Dell to meet that need and over 800 business customers have already purchased Surface devices directly from Dell. We have also continued to expand our own services, warranty and support offerings and to strengthen our partner ecosystem and customer offerings. In the past year we’ve gone from 200 partners in the channel to now 10,000 in our ecosystem.

We have been inspired by the way our customers are using our devices to push the limits of performance and productivity. So we kept pushing to drive new innovation into the Surface portfolio with the launch of Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. We continue to invest in our Surface family of products because we have seen how innovative devices shift people’s behavior, inspire ideas, catalyze collaboration, accelerate progress, and transform business. And in the past year the Surface business has grown from generating on the order of $1B in revenue in a year to $1B in revenue per quarter.

We know we can do more.

Industry Specific Solutions from IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton

Our customers want solutions, more than just apps built on a mobile OS. Our customers want the industry-leading security and productivity features of Windows 10 on Surface. Today we’re excited to announce two new partnerships with IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton to deliver industry specific solutions that will meet this need for our shared customers.

IBM will draw on its analytics and enterprise applications expertise to create new industry-specific solutions for financial services and consumer packaged goods(CPG)/retail companies that take advantage of the unique capabilities of Surface devices. IBM understands the specific challenges of these industries and will work with us to build the right set of solutions across devices, apps and services that will help bring greater mobility into their business, seamlessly blending existing infrastructure and Universal Windows applications on the backend with an easy-to-use, mobile frontend.

For example, IBM will develop an application for CPG and retail companies that puts Microsoft Power BI on Surface to bring decision makers closer to the data and analytics they need to optimize utilization of employee time. The app combines organizational and industry data in visualized diagrams and reports to provide insights that empower employees to make smarter staffing decisions that maximize productivity while minimizing costs. The functionality can also be extended to other aspects of the industry such as product management, sales management and demand forecasting.

Similarly, we are seeing strong demand for Surface within government and the public sector in general. Earlier this year, we announced that Surface has met the strict security and interoperability requirements to be fully certified for the U.S. Department of Defense. Today we are taking the next step in meeting the needs of Public Sector organizations with our new partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Booz Allen Hamilton will develop scalable and secure solutions for Governments, the Public Sector and Healthcare verticals. Booz Allen’s clients have very specific needs, in terms of app compatibility, security, confidentiality and multiple credentials. Booz Allen has chosen to partner with Surface to take advantage of the world class enterprise grade security, manageability and flexibility available only with the combination of Surface and Windows 10.

New Surface Subscription Offering and Multi-National Purchasing Program

In addition, we’re happy to announce new programs to give business customers of all sizes added flexibility to purchase and deploy Surfaces – and to provide new opportunities to our partners. We’re introducing Surface as a Service, where our Cloud Solution Providers (who are also Surface Authorized Distributors) can now offer Surface devices through a managed service offering to all of our resellers and customers, alongside managed cloud services, Office 365, Windows 10, and relevant ISV software. This new offering faster device refresh, more flexible purchasing options, and ensures customers can have the latest Surface devices that evolve with the best Windows and Office have to offer. We launched this program with ALSO, a leading CSP out of Europe, and look forward to working with other partners to expand this program globally.

Likewise, we want to provide more purchasing options for our global customers. We are announcing our new Surface Multi-National Purchasing Program and authorizing four resellers – CDW, Insight, SHI and Zones – to provide multi-national customers Surface devices and accessories. This gives enterprise customers a more streamlined path for getting Surface on company-wide standards lists and for cross-country adoption for line of business scenarios. Additional resellers wishing to join the program should contact their local Partner Sales Executive.

These new programs and partnerships, combined with our strong partner ecosystem, provide great opportunities for our partners and customers alike. We continue to be inspired by how people are using Surface how businesses are fueling their digital transformation with Surface.