Microsoft New Zealand has appointed former CRM manager Paul Bowkett as a dedicated cloud sales manager, responsible for promoting online services such as Office 365 and Windows Azure to SMB customers.

The creation of the role follows the announcement two weeks ago from Microsoft HQ that Office 365 is achieving significant growth in the small business space.

This will come as good news for Microsoft, which must have wondered if the familiarity of the Office brands would outweigh the fact that Google Apps are available for free.

Jared Pederson, SMB sales and marketing manager for Microsoft New Zealand, says the role is not only new for Microsoft New Zealand, but across the company globally.

"We look forward to seeing Paul carve out a new body of work and driving a business that is critical to Microsoft's future growth,” Pederson says.

"Paul has strong business acumen and an excellent understanding of Microsoft products and business – the internal promotion for this role is testament to his talent.

Check out Bowkett's LinkedIn page here.