Services, Promotion for Office Partners

New Web sites, training opportunities, and support services are designed to promote Office solutions and add-ins from partners and ISVs. The new offerings will help Microsoft demonstrate the value of Office 2003 and should help customers and partners better understand how Office capabilities can be used as part of more comprehensive solutions.

Announced at the June 2003 TechEd conference, the main services are an online directory in which solution providers can list their Office-related products; a marketplace, intended primarily for ISVs who create add-ons or services that can be used with Office; and training and development support for partners who want to develop Office add-ons or solutions.

The Office Solutions Directory

The Office Solutions Directory is a database of solutions that, as of mid-June, offered about 80 solutions in four major categories: business intelligence, communication and collaboration, intranets and portals, and personal productivity.

The directory gives customers easier access to preconfigured solutions that are based on common Office components (such as a business intelligence solution built on Excel and Data Analyzer), serve a market niche (such as a crime mapping system for use by law enforcement agencies), or use Office components as part of a comprehensive management solution (such as a decision management system for the hospitality industry).