Comments for Microsoft Online Services: Subscription Web Apps for Business

Microsoft Online Services: Subscription Web Apps for Business

2008-07-08T16:10:23Z

At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston today, Microsoft announced a roadmap and pricing for a number of online software packages for the enterprise and small business market. Microsoft Online Services is currently available in a limited beta and will come in two flavors: Business Productivity Online Standard Suite for $15 a seat, and a Deskless Worker Suite for $3 a seat.

]]> The Business Productivity Suite will come with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online (IM and Presence), as well as Office Live Meeting. The cheaper Deskless Worker Suite will only include Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. Companies do not have to subscribe to the complete packages, but can also subscribe to individual services as well.

Microsoft Online Services is scheduled to be released out of beta at some point in the second half of 2008.

The Deskless Worker Suite, as Mary Jo Foley notes, seems to be geared towards users who might otherwise be tempted to move to Google Docs or Zoho's online office suite. Microsoft is aiming this product at workers who only spend a small part of their days at a computer, but still need access to email and and other basic online services.

As Microsoft is moving more and more services into the cloud, the big question of when (and if) Microsoft will start offering the core components of its office suite like Word and Excel online as well, still remains. For now, Microsoft seems content to offer products like Office Live Workspace that provides online storage in the cloud, but as pressure from Google and others increases, Microsoft will surely have to counter these offerings with a more fully featured web based office suite.

Comment from Big Question from a Small Business Perspective on 2008-07-25

2008-07-25T17:11:26Z

a point everything seems to be missing is. even in this "bundled" package, hosted sharepoint, exchange, and livemeeting will be offered as seperate solutions even tho prices collectively. this will require some amount of implementation and configuration which does NOT go down well with smaller businesses. this still leaves for players who offer integerated messaging+collaboration+conferencing solutions like HyperOffice which are ready-to-use.

Comment from Avatar on 2008-07-08

2008-07-09T00:08:59Z

Counting this announcement with the small business announcement, yahoo further fall, vmware fall, Google docs downtime, the new Ad global ad campaign starting and the recent Windows Server 2008 reports from today this may be one of the biggest days for microsoft in the late months.

Seriously. what a day.

and this announcement is of course huge. who would go for Google Docs or Zoho when you can have Exchange, sharepoint, office communications and live meeting as hosted services for a unbeatable price compared to appriver that charges up to 4x times this?