Microsoft Unveils Office Live Small Business

Microsoft unveils office live small business

Microsoft Canada Co. has released Microsoft Office Live Small Business, an online, one-stop shop for Canadian small businesses that provides a complete, affordable set of easy-to-use Internet-based tools that help small-business owners get online, attract customers and manage their business.

With this newest addition to Microsoft's software and service offering, customers sign up for free and receive the essentials for establishing a professional Web presence, including a domain name, Web hosting and business-branded e-mail and multiple business applications. Targeted at customers with less than 15 employees, Office Live Small Business could handle up to 100 users and the experience designing a Web page is said to be as straightforward as using Microsoft Word.

"Small businesses tend not to have cycles in terms of the resources or capital to undergo continuous IT investment," said Warren Shiau, associate partner, senior analyst, IT research, The Strategic Counsel. "The general way to address that lack of cycles is to change how small business attains, manage, and update their technology . . . to remove that lack of resources or manpower issue.

"In Canada, no matter whose stats you look at, businesses tend to have a problem under-investing in IT . . . unless the business you're involved in requires your own personal skill, you're always going to be in competition with someone that sells in volume."

While 43 per cent of Canada's one million small businesses use the Internet to learn more about a company they want to work with, almost half (48 per cent) don't have a website of their own, according to the results of a Harris-Decima survey commissioned by Microsoft Canada Co.

Lack of time was cited as the No. 1 reason for not having a website, with almost one-quarter of respondents saying they don't have the time to create one. One-in-five respondents feel that it would be too difficult to create on their own. As well, one-in-six respondents point to the cost of maintaining a website as an inhibitor to growing their business online.

"In today's competitive small business world, having a professional Web presence is just as important as having a phone number," said Evan Carmichael, small business Internet technology consultant, Evan Carmichael Communications. "Being able to conduct business professionally on the Web removes the barriers of size and allows small businesses to compete more easily with big-name brands. If done effectively, in the virtual world, size doesn't matter."

Canadian small business owners feel a website is important for a variety of reasons. According to the survey results, the majority of respondents indicated that a website is important to make them appear professional (91 per cent), and to attract customers (82 per cent), while almost two-thirds also feel a website is critical in order to be competitive. More than half feel they would use the Web to assist with customer retention

"The survey reveals that many small businesses have been unable to take full advantage of online marketing due to a variety of reasons. Among those who already have a website, 60 per cent of respondents report they are concerned about enhancing their site and keeping content fresh and almost 40 per cent feel they simply don't have the time or expertise to update the site themselves," remarked Jason Brommet, senior product manager, Microsoft Canada. "We want to help Canadian small businesses use technology to extend their reach to existing and prospective customers who wish to do business online. That is why today Microsoft is providing Microsoft Office Live Small Business to allow small businesses to take, promote and manage their business online easily and at no-cost."

The hosted service's free features include:

*Fourth level domain name registration with 100 business email accounts;

*Free hosting and website creation tools to allow small businesses to easily create or transfer over an existing website;

*Collaboration via Office Live Workspaces enabling small businesses to easily share and transfer documents with free 500MB storage;

*Better manage and track customers by integrating with Contact Manager, unified analytics, and easy to use document sharing, along with virtually seamless and flexible integration with Microsoft Office;

*Optional and affordable features include email marketing and custom domain name registration.

"Five to 10 years from now . . . online is going to be pervasive, technology and the use of technology is going to be pervasive," Shiau added. "In that sort of world, you need to have technology . . . the world is going to change and (your business) can't afford not to invest in technology."