On Tuesday Microsoft announced the debut of Office 365, which will be a combination of the online versions of Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync.  The Redmond giant has launched a beta release of the cloud-based Office suite in 13 countries. They’re branding this new product as the “next generation in cloud productivity”.

What does this mean for mobile business? It means the same functionality that has made Microsoft Office the gold standard of business computing without being tethered to our PCs. It’s Office when you are out of the office.  New collaboration features allow groups to work on projects in a simple and secure way.

Kurt DelBene, president of the Office Division at Microsoft said:

“Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service. With Office 365, your local bakery can get enterprise-caliber software and services for the first time, while a multinational pharmaceutical company can reduce costs and more easily stay current with the latest innovations. People can focus on their business, while we and our partners take care of the technology.”

The Office 365 site went live earlier this week.  Those interested can use the site to register to participate in the beta program. Microsoft has not announced the date of the public release of Office 365, although they have said that the suite would be widely available in 40 countries by next year. Full press release here.