RSSOffice Live Set for Release November 15
By Ed Oswald | Published October 31, 2006, 6:03 PM
Microsoft said Tuesday that it would bring its Office Live service out of beta in the United States on November 15, while at the same time launching new free betas in France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. With the official release also comes new functionality, it said.
According to Microsoft, nearly 160,000 businesses tested out the service's various features, and through that feedback it has made several changes.
Integration with adCenter has been added, along with new Web design tools, more storage, additional e-mail accounts, chatting online through text, voice, or mobile phone, and Windows Live Messenger support. A contact manager has also been added to the suite of offerings for higher-level accounts.
Office Live corporate vice president Rajesh Jha said that most small businesses lack the IT departments and knowledge to create applications that enhance their businesses. Thus, Microsoft has created Office Live to fill that void, he said.
With the new adCenter support, small businesses would gain the ability to purchase advertising for their businesses across Microsoft's Web properties. The contact manager will help these companies better maintain their business relationships, Microsoft said.
Microsoft will also allow more control over Web site design in the new release, allowing users to use custom HTML code. However, if users decide to use the templates, better JavaScript and AJAX support would make "drag and drop" design more easy for those not familiar with Web design.
Three levels of service will be provided:
- Office Live Basics, offered for free, will include a domain name, 500MB of storage, site reporting tools, 25 e-mail/instant messaging accounts with 2GB of storage, calendaring, Web design tools, and Office Live AdManager Beta;
- Office Live Essentials, offered at $19.95 monthly, includes all of the above, with 1GB of storage, and 50 e-mail accounts. In addition, it includes Office Live Business Contact Manager and workspaces for 10 users with 500MB of storage; and
- Office Live Premium, offered at $39.95 monthly, including all of the above with 2GB of Web site storage, plus Internet-based productivity applications.
Honestly, folks ... it's really quite useful.
I've been using it for a non-profit charity I support. They had no web presence and needed both an external site to promote their cause .. and an internal site to supply information to their staff/volunteers. Though it's been a bit of a challenge (hey, it's beta, right) .. we have been able to navigate through the tool(s).
Limits in the beta have prohibited us from completing a few important tasks (like configuring the Shared Site for the internal access to vital charity event information). Additionally, there has been a limit on the number of members to a Shared Site (which has been a puzzlement).
I'm curious as to the support model -- since it is targeted for those businesses that don't have an IT department or any IT-centric knowledge. The beta has had horrid support so it's difficult to know how the production release will improve that service. Microsoft's previous customer support model will need a whole new approach when they become the "IT help desk" for a company.
It should be an interesting time ...
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|I just don't understand Office Live. I tried it out and I just don't get it.
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|Office Live doesn't work properly (my email STILL doesn't work) and the support for it is terrible. I have emails from Office Live support people that leave in question their literacy, let alone any technical ability. Office Live isn't worth a dime, let alone the prices listed in the article.
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|...and how much $$$ do you currently pay for this BETA version of OL that you've been using?
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|I think you miss the point of the article and my post. The program is coming out of beta and my experience with it does not indicate that it is, in any way, ready to do so.
Hope that cleared things up for you.
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|Reading the article, I was going to ask "Yeah, but when will it actually work?" But then I read your post and got my answer...
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|Oh well... I'm happy with my free domain name, and I haven't had any problems yet.
Just use the free version and pray it works. That's what I'm doing :)
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