It shouldn't come as a big surprise that Microsoft dominated the category of Cloud Applications.
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After all, Microsoft has for a long time been the leader in business productivity applications with its Office suite and SharePoint business collaboration platform. Moving the apps to the cloud as Office 365 and SharePoint Cloud was a natural progression.
Microsoft garnered first place in all ARC subcategories, edging Oracle, which gained second-place in all subcategories.
The groupings were organized around product innovation, such as product quality, technical innovation and services opportunity; support, such as presales and post-sales support, and quality of field management; and partnership averages, including solution provider program, communication and partner program.
Joseph Giegerich, managing partner of New York-based Microsoft partner Gig Werks, says Microsoft's experience tuning its applications into business needs also is helping the company develop cloud applications, which are in increasing demand by his customers.
"With Office 365 and SharePoint, Microsoft has a more mature understanding of the business needs of its customers," said Giegerich. "Office Web Apps [one of Office 365's products] is a remarkable application, and SharePoint is a big game-changer."
Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division, said the software giant worked to maintain the functionality of its applications as they refashioned for the cloud. "For the last year plus, we've worked incredibly hard to make Office 365 the best, most trusted cloud service on the planet," DelBene said. "This award is testimony to that hard work, and it's also validation for our customers, whose ongoing feedback has helped us make the service better every day.
"Office 365 combines the power of Office with the industry's leading communication and collaboration services, including SharePoint," DelBene added. "It's always up-to-date and backed by Microsoft and the best partner ecosystem in the world. The service builds on our years of experience, but with an entirely fresh approach."
