Optus has taken a leaf out of Telstra’s book and launched its own apps marketplace to sell Microsoft Office 365 along with other business-centric apps, in a bid to help small business owners streamline their operations.
Optus Smart Shop will offer small businesses a selection of apps, including Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint, financial tracking software Sage One, accounts filing app Xpenditure and security solution MozyPro.
The carrier will offer round-the-clock support, to simplify and improve efficiencies surrounding day-to-day tasks like invoicing, expense management and online document hosting and access.
Optus Smart Shop will be powered by cloud services provider BCSG, while support will be driven by cloud IT support provider Cloud Flow.
The Smart Shop is familiar in its approach to the Telstra Apps Marketplace, which was launched two years ago. Optus' marketplace has many of the same apps, including Office 365, SharePoint and MozyPro.
Head of Optus SMB Matthew Ball said the move would help small businesses reduce expensive and complex IT infrastructure and support systems.
“To help SMB operators, we have created a support service for the new Optus Smart Shop marketplace so customers can select and set-up apps and programs to improve business efficiency in order to spend their time doing other things,” he said.
Users will be able to purchase the apps and support levels that suit their budgets, with the option to expand as their business grows.
Optus SMB recently announced 126 small business specialist stores, a call centre support team based in Adelaide and 24/7 live chat for small to medium business customers.
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
