Microsoft Office 2013 Release Date, Prices: Rising Tide of U.S. Government Agencies Sign on to Office 365 as Private Sector Hesitates

While it remains to be seen if Microsoft's latest productivity suite will hook the lion's share of business owners in the coming years, government agencies have recently signed deals to convert nearly 1 million employees to the Redmond-based company's Office 365 cloud service. The Veterans Affairs Department will ease 600,000 people into the software lineup, meanwhile the City of Chicago plans to convert 30,000 workers.

In a January 3 press release, Mayor Rahm Emanuel asserts that "This strategy is an innovative solution for the City, making our operations more effective and securing and saving taxpayer money. We are leveraging new technologies to streamline and modernize the way we do business in order to provide the residents of Chicago with the best service at the best price, which has been a fundamental part of my approach as Mayor from the moment I took office."

Office 365 will reportedly save Chicago a total of $1,600,000 by the end of the city's four-year contract with Microsoft, slashing software costs by 80 percent per employee.  Similarly, the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department cities cost reduction as motivation for the switch.

"VA is moving to cloud-based email and collaboration as part of a broader effort to leverage emerging technologies to reduce cost, increase efficiencies and, most importantly, improve service delivery to our nation's veterans," assures VA Executive Director of Enterprise Systems Engineering Charles De Sanno (via GCN).

The Air Force, Army, and Defense Systems Agency will migrate to Office 2013 as well, according to a Forbes report. Microsoft's suggests that the contract "provides all three organizations with a single vehicle for accessing the latest Microsoft technologies in support of top IT priorities around datacenter consolidation, collaboration, cyber security, mobility, cloud computing and big data."

The private sector, however, appears more cautious to take the dive. Several IT business owners have told SearchEnterpriseDesktop that many businesses have only recently settled into Office 2010 and may not be ready for a new software iteration yet. While a handful of sources hardly act as a dependable litmus test for the industry as a whole, the market's reaction to Microsoft's latest cloud push and subscription model should be interesting to watch.  

As for pricing, Office 365 Home Premium will cost $99.99/year, and Office 365 Small Business Premium will cost $149.99/year. If Office users opt for the traditional licensed offering, Office Home & Student 2013 will be priced at $139.99, Office Home & Business 2013 at $219.99, and Office Professional 2013 at $399.99. Office Small Business Premium offers its suite for $12.50/month and can be used by up to 25 employees. Office 365 University costs either $79.99 for a four-year subscription, or $1.67/month.

Microsoft has further incentivized the new Office with a promotion that encourages any consumer who purchases Microsoft Office 2010 between now and April 30, 2013 to apply for a free upgrade to Microsoft Office 2013 or a one-year subscription to Office 365, the Redmond-based company's cloud service.