Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

Microsoft is once again trying to catch up to the age of the internet. They are enhancing attempts to capture some share of the online application market by offering test of their online business programs to a wider array of user. The Redmond software giant has fallen badly behind other online players, such as Google, in offering online services.

Microsoft is expected to announce, probably today, new online services to handle e-mail, calendars, contact lists, video conferencing and other functions for small and medium-size businesses. They had offered similar services last year, but only to companies with more than 5.000 employees. By offering the online software to smaller businesses, they are hoping to bring their offering in line with those of Google.

It is expected that the programs offered online will be versions of their existing programs which already handle these functions on the business desktop, augmented by SharePoint, their existing online collaboration tool. All software will run on Microsoft hardware and be accessible over the internet. So far, no information has been made available about pricing for the online services.

If they follow the model already being used by Google and others, Microsoft would charge a small monthly fee per user in order to access the online versions of their software. There is speculation that the software available on line could be expanded to include applications from their popular MS Office suite, and others, for additional fees. Microsoft feels that as much as half of their customers will be utilizing online software in five years.

More information on this development can be found here, here, and here.