Telstra goes live with T-Suite SME software applications

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 01 April 2009 11:20

Business IT - Technology

Telstra says that, from today, small businesses in all industry sectors will be able to:

• Generate employment agreements and manage everyday staff issues with easy to use HR processes and templates from Workforce Guardian  that are updated online to reflect changes in employment law.

• Help protect their businesses from viruses, malicious Internet attacks and loss of sensitive data with security tools provided by Telstra, MessageLabs (now part of Symantec) and McAfee.

• Improve collaboration between suppliers, staff and customers with Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Mail and Skoot, which allows small businesses to securely and quickly send/share large files too big for email

• Automate business processes such as billing, invoicing and document management with software offered by WORKetc and access Microsoft Dynamics CRM software.

According to Shiff, this week’s launch of the T-Suite service is only the start, with Xero, a small business accounting system, Microsoft Online Services as well as other software to be added to the T-Suite applications catalogue over the coming months.

“Telstra is currently in talks with up to 50 local and international software vendors,” Shiff said.

According to  Workforce Guardian managing director, Adrienne Unkovich, the T-Suite  service is timely given a new Telstra Business survey, also released today, revealing almost half (46 per cent) of small businesses currently do not have any systems in place to manage the new IR laws.

“T-Suite  applications gives us the scale to help thousands of small businesses properly prepare themselves for the massive changes in employment laws recently passed by the federal Parliament and ensure they are kept constantly up to date with any modifications to the laws,” she said.

Telstra announced that prices for T-Suite applications start from as little as $4 per user per month for desktop security; $16.95 for email; $14 for data back per service per month and collaboration software starts at $7.95 (storage space per month).  In most cases businesses can register and have access to their software in a matter of minutes, Telstra says.