bCentral Adds Services, Content

bCentral, Microsoft’s Web site and set of hosted services for small businesses, has added new content and services in its first significant update since 2001. The new bCentral features are provided exclusively by partners, reflecting a shift of development resources away from Microsoft-hosted services and increasing reliance on partners to improve these services. (For background on this trend, see “Hosted Services Becoming Lower Priority” on page 22 of the Oct. 2002 Update.)

Most significant is a new Customer Leads service, which provides access to the names, addresses, phone numbers, and other data for up to 14 million businesses and 250 million customers. Data is provided and updated by infoUSA, and the leads cost between US$0.10 and US$0.50 each, depending on the number purchased. The Web site has also added legal information from Nolo Press and FindLaw; networking advice sponsored by Cisco; a service from InPhonic that helps businesses find the cheapest wireless phone carrier for their needs; and content from business magazines FastCompany and Inc.