A new set of educational and support tools will help Microsoft build a deeper relationship with small businesses, providing them with resources such as free or low-cost technical support and online business and software training.

Reaching Small Business

Small businesses, which Microsoft defines as organizations with fewer than 50 employees, are a particularly difficult market for IT vendors to reach. Most do not have professional IT staff who keep up with technology, and their modest IT budgets rule out significant expenditures on marketing and sales efforts to reach them.

Nevertheless, they have one critical attribute for Microsoft: their numbers. Approximately 40 million small businesses worldwide, including about 7 million in the United States, have at least one PC. Access Markets International, which defines small businesses as having fewer than 99 employees, estimates that 76 million small businesses worldwide spent more than US$300 billion on IT in 2002.

Operating on the assumption that many of these small businesses might be attracted by educational and technical support resources that can be delivered inexpensively over the Web, Microsoft designed Small Business+ to reach them. The program, for which registration is free, offers the following benefits:

• Free online courses ranging from business topics to tutorials on Microsoft applications
• Free and discounted technical support, including chat-based online support and substantial discounts on support bundles (e.g., unlimited chat-based technical support and three telephone-based incidents for US$399, which Microsoft says would normally cost more than US$1,600)
• Financing offers for the purchase of software and services
• A periodic newsletter, customized for the subscriber's specific requirements (e.g., an accountant in a manufacturing company), with information about new courses, products, and other offerings
• Access to an online "Small Business Summit" that Microsoft plans for later in 2006
• A Web site tailored to deliver information about areas that fit the profile the partner filled out when registering for the program. For example, an accountant will see listings for courses about managing cash flow and tutorials on Microsoft's Small Business Accounting software.

The company says that Small Business+ will gain additional benefits and enhancements over time. For example, by mid-2006 Small Business+ customers will have access to a database of Microsoft partners that provide services for small business. Microsoft subsidiaries may add their own benefits: one subsidiary will feature discounted software from Microsoft partners in that country, for example.

Tie-In to Partners

The new program builds on Microsoft's ongoing small business offerings, such as bCentral, which offers hosted Web pages, and Small Business Center, which offers small business articles and information about Microsoft software for small business.

The company recently reorganized its small business unit, placing it under Vice President Allison Watson, who also heads the Microsoft Partner Program, which includes many small partners that provide IT services to small businesses. Within that program, the company has created a Small Business Specialist designation that gives small partners a relatively achievable certification, a listing in a directory of Small Business Specialists, and the right to use the Microsoft logo in their own marketing.

Small Business+, which Microsoft hopes will attract at least 300,000 customers in the next six months, is also likely to be used to market Office Live, a planned set of Web-based applications geared toward small business customers who lack the IT expertise to install and maintain server applications. Office Live will offer small business customers ad-supported domain names, Web hosting, and Web-based e-mail. Fee-based Office Live applications, all hosted on the Web, include customer relationship management, project management, and document sharing.

Resources

The Small Business+ sign-up page is at www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/small-business-plus/sign-up.aspx.

The Small Business Specialist program is described at https://partner.microsoft.com/smallbizspecreadiness.

Small Business Summit registration is available at www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/small-business-summit/hub.mspx.

Office Live is described in "Services Emerge Under 'Live' Brand" on page 25 of the Dec. 2005 Update.