SaaS: Microsoft hits back with consumer and enterprise offerings

Stuart Corner
Monday, 01 October 2007 18:16

Business IT - Technology

- Microsoft BizTalk Services, a building block service that enables developers to build composite applications, "to help enable greater cost efficiencies and thereby open up new business opportunities for enterprises of all sizes";

Office Live Workspace is available at no charge and anyone can pre-register for the English language beta at http://www.officelive.com/ .

It offers access documents from anywhere. Users can organise documents and projects for work, school and home online, and work on them from almost any computer. They can save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online and access them via the Web. They can work collaboratively with others in a password-protected, invitation-only online workspace. Collaborators who don't have a desktop version of Microsoft Office software will be able to view and comment on a document in a browser.

'Online' offerings are now available to any enterprise with 5,000 or more seats and include
- Microsoft Exchange Online;
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Online;
-Microsoft Office Communications Online.

'Online' services will be delivered through Microsoft. However, Microsoft says its partners will be able to add value through subscription fees for solutions built on top of Online services through on-premise integration services and through referral and resell fees."

IDC reported last month that Software as a Service (SaaS) providers were seeking rapid expansion and their channel strategies and were likely to wreak havoc with the revenue streams of the traditional channel partners of software companies.

Also last month Google Apps, Google's office productivity tools delivered online, received a huge boost with Capgemini, one of the world's leading providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, deciding to offer and support the apps to large scale enterprises./