Office Live Aims at Small Businesses

Office Live, a set of Microsoft-hosted online services for small businesses, entered public beta in Feb. 2006. Office Live enables a business to establish a simple Web site, create Web-based e-mail accounts, and manage customer contacts, sales initiatives, and other business activities. Office Live is more comprehensive than Microsoft’s last entry in this market, bCentral, and Microsoft is subsidizing services, such as free domain name registration and site hosting, which will place pressure on ISPs and competitors, such as Intuit and Yahoo, that offer similar services.

Although the beta has some shortcomings, such as the difficulty of sharing data among applications, Office Live could eventually evolve into a viable substitute for Microsoft software such as Internet Information Services (IIS), Exchange, FrontPage, and Windows SharePoint Services (all of which are included in Small Business Server), and perhaps even low-end versions of Microsoft business management products such as Dynamics CRM and Small Business Manager. If this happens, Microsoft partners that specialize in selling such solutions to small businesses will have to adapt accordingly—for example, by helping businesses set up and maintain Office Live services. However, given Microsoft’s history with other hosted services for small businesses, partners would be wise to wait and see whether Microsoft is committed to Office Live for the long run.