{"id":234465,"date":"2020-05-28T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/?p=234465"},"modified":"2023-08-03T08:31:16","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T15:31:16","slug":"helping-small-medium-sized-businesses-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365\/blog\/2020\/05\/28\/helping-small-medium-sized-businesses-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping small and medium-sized businesses during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
Editor\u2019s note 6\/30\/2020:<\/i><\/b>
\nThis post has been updated to reflect a change in the availability of the Microsoft 365 Business Basic six-months free offer.<\/i><\/p>\n
With the COVID-19 outbreak impacting companies across the globe, we\u2019ve all experienced a world of remote everything. Overnight, the outbreak compelled organizations large and small to shut their doors and navigate a whiplash digital transformation while working to keep employees safe, connect with customers, and move work forward. Today, as some organizations begin to reopen and others remain fully remote, small and medium-sized businesses<\/a> face a unique set of challenges. We get it, and we are working hard to help enable your employees to stay connected and productive, through COVID-19 and beyond.<\/p>\n Here I\u2019m going to share three inspiring stories on how small and medium-sized businesses are navigating this moment. Then I\u2019ll go over some recent offerings designed to help you and your business navigate this unprecedented moment. Finally, I\u2019ll point you to partnerships with American Express and Adobe, created to further support your efforts to keep work moving. Let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n Every day, our customers tell us that priority number one is adapting tools that enable remote work and help them roll out changes as quickly as possible. Peter, who owns a winery in Michigan<\/strong>, typically runs his company on-site, with staff in the office. When the pandemic hit, Peter quickly realized that he needed to invest in online collaboration and file-sharing tools like OneDrive for Business. He started using OneDrive to help make sure that \u201cbusiness documents [and] business information are accessible from anywhere, and not to anyone, but to the appropriate people from wherever they need to work.\u201d This has helped him safely stay in business, fulfilling orders remotely until offices can reopen.<\/p>\n Alex, the president of an engineering consulting firm<\/strong> in Toronto, found he also needs to pivot his business in a new direction. \u201cWe used to have 80 percent of our meetings with clients in person,\u201d says Alex. \u201cNow it’s 100 percent over the internet.\u201d Secure communications, along with the ability to hold long online meetings that fit clients\u2019 schedules, are particularly important to Alex. We designed new features and capabilities in Microsoft Teams, part of the Microsoft 365 productivity solution, to help companies like Alex continue connect with clients even when they can\u2019t meet in person. You can learn more about Teams here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As restrictions ease in certain regions, some businesses are reopening softly\u2014but may have a long way to go before they can recover fully. Jackie is a General Manager who works at a restaurant supply distributing company <\/strong>with 17 employees in Massachusetts. She says keeping her staff employed is \u201ccritical\u201d for her organization, but also tricky since their business depends on events like parties and weddings. While the team was fully remote, Jackie set up what she calls \u201cvirtual offices,\u201d distributing computers to everyone who didn\u2019t already have one that they could take home. Recently, her employees have been able to return to the office in rotation while continuing to communicate with teammates working from home. Meanwhile, Jackie intends on keeping everyone busy. \u201cI literally have them cleaning, organizing, you know, doing a cycle counts, inventory, like pretty much trying to keep everybody employed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n We are thrilled that our technology can help keep work moving for customers like Peter, Alex, and Jackie. To help more of our small and medium-sized business customers at this time, we have updated some of our offerings to specifically meet their needs.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quick summary of existing benefits to help small and medium-sized businesses at this time.<\/p>\n But recovery doesn\u2019t occur in a vacuum. We know that many small and medium-sized business customers are already working with some of our long-standing partners. So we teamed up with them to find additional ways to help you through this time. We\u2019ve joined American Express as part of the Stand for Small<\/a>\u00a0campaign, and Adobe<\/a>\u2019s COVID-19 support efforts.<\/p>\n Small and medium-sized businesses are the heartbeat of economies and cultures everywhere. At Microsoft, we are committed to enabling them to stay open through this challenging moment. Today, I’ve shared stories of how businesses like yours are showing resilience even in the face of great challenge. I\u2019ve also outlined offerings aimed at helping all of our small and medium-sized customers, including offers with partners that you may already be working with. I look forward to sharing more news and updates with you in the days to come. Meanwhile, let\u2019s continue to move forward together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These benefits were designed to help small and medium-sized businesses recover and rebuild at this challenging time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3368610,"featured_media":234471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"content-type":[4032],"product":[4036,4070],"audience":[4081,4102],"tags":[],"coauthors":[4726],"class_list":["post-234465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","content-type-customer-stories","product-microsoft-365","product-teams","audience-enterprise","audience-small-business","review-flag-1680288349-139","review-flag-6-1680288349-759","review-flag-anywh-1680288348-361","review-flag-free","review-flag-new-1680288347-871"],"yoast_head":"\nLearning from customers<\/h3>\n
Benefits for your business<\/h3>\n
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