Hosting Deal Signed with BT

Small business customers in the United Kingdom will soon be able to purchase a bundle that includes Internet connectivity provided by British Telecommunications (BT), Office software from Microsoft, and deployment and management services from BT services partners. Though it will reduce barriers to technology adoption by small customers, the offering is limited in scope and costly. Nonetheless, it helps Microsoft test the waters for subscription-based hosted software offerings for small businesses without having to build and host these offerings itself.

Product and Pricing

Called BT Connected & Complete, the service provides the following:

• Broadband Internet access
• Antivirus and firewall software
• Exchange e-mail, hosted by BT
• Office Small Business Edition 2003, hosted by BT
• Deployment and ongoing support from a BT services partner.

BT will use a Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) from Microsoft to host all the software. The service will be priced on a per-month, per-user basis, and the partners estimate the price at about £50, or about US$90, for each user each month, for a five-person organization.