New bCentral Services Detailed

Microsoft’s bCentral will allow small businesses to manage financial data online, and it has officially unveiled services for publishing catalog items to Web marketplaces and managing customer information. The announcements underscore bCentral’s evolving roles as an application service provider (ASP) for small businesses and as a showcase for the .NET strategy.

The newly announced bCentral service, Finance Manager, is expected to be available for about US$25 per month beginning in early 2001. Finance Manager will interact with other bCentral services to provide a single online location for small businesses to track financial information like accounts payable and receivable, sales, overall inventory, and profit and loss.

Microsoft also revealed the official name, pricing, and availability for two previously demonstrated bCentral services: Commerce Manager, available now for US$24.95 per month, allows small businesses to publish catalog items on multiple online marketplaces, while Customer Manager, expected for the same price by the end of 2000, tracks customer data. (For more details on these services, see “bCentral Drives Small Business E-Commerce Strategy” on page 21 of the Nov. 2000 Update.)