The office and collaboration software tools market continues to evolve and the move towards cloud based solutions, propelled by Google Apps, is accelerating as Microsoft expedites the transition of its customer base to Office 365.

Following its CloudIT for Google solution that enables corporations to evaluate their readiness to move to Google Apps and to manage the transition, SoftWatch today announces CloudIT 365. This new service provides customers considering a move to Office 365 with information regarding their usage patterns and assistance designing and executing the transition. The solution provides data on actual usage of different applications and segments the user population to "Light" and "Heavy" users so customers will be able to make informed decisions. Light users may be moved to the Office 365 cloud based solution, while heavy users will continue to use the robust on premise Office suite.  By implementing a gradual move, corporations will maintain high productivity while optimizing their license and operational costs.

The CloudIT 365 analysis includes a broad set of applications and cloud based services. In addition to the commonly used PPT, Excel and Word applications, it provides usage information about Google Apps, Lotus Notes and SharePoint. In addition, it  provides usage information regarding additional cloud based services: Cloud Storage including Box.net, Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive; and Online Conferencing including WebEx, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Lync. Customers, who are already using Office 365, can monitor and manage the adoption of the different applications and services provided by the suite.

"We are very excited to introduce CloudIT 365 and support the growing trend of moving office productivity applications to the cloud," said Uri Arad, Co-CEO of SoftWatch. "By making this service available to the broad corporate market wishing to migrate to Office 365, SoftWatch is now able to support the two main office applications providers and thus serve our mission to provide vital information and operational tools to decision makers who want to move to the cloud."

This new solution was created with the help of several Microsoft resellers who were looking for tools to enable the smooth transition of MS Office users to Office 365. SoftWatch is developing business relations with Office 365 resellers and already has several deployments underway.

"With more than 150 successful deployments of our CloudIT for Google solution, we are looking forward to accelerating growth and strengthening our position as the market leader in usage analytics for applications and cloud services," said Moshe Kozlovski, Co-CEO of SoftWatch. "We believe that the Microsoft strategy of moving to the cloud will expedite this trend and the fierce competition with Google will yield a strong demand for our services. We look forward to working with both Google and Microsoft resellers to provide advanced solutions and best practices to customers."