Microsoft targets small businesses with Sharepoint and Exchange

MIGHTYSOFT announced that companies large and small can now sign up for a trial beta version of Web hosted versions of its Exchange and Sharepoint software.

Online versions of the software are being made available to companies of all sizes for the first time - no longer limiting the service to large businesses.

Microsoft will now target companies with 50-250 PCs (100-500 users) as opposed to its earlier plan of only targeting enterprises buying 5,000 seats or more.

In addition to Exchange and Sharepoint, the Vole also plans to offer online versions of its Office Communications Server (OCS), unified communications software and its LiveMeeting web conferencing software.

But Microsoft Online Services are not likely to be available to smaller UK businesses until late 2008, the Vole confessed.

The new services will allow companies to log on to e-mail, calendaring, contacts, shared workspaces, web-conferencing and video-conferencing over the net. Microsoft also launched a new licensing model with more flexible customer options, although no prices were disclosed.

The move is seen as a counter attack against Google's meteoric rise in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market.

Bill Gates is expected to tell the Vole's Sharepoint Conference in Seattle today that over 100 million Sharepoint licences have been flogged to date, making a tidy $1 billion for Microsoft. µ

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