Office Live goes Live

Office Live, which goes live in the US on Nov 15, and simultaneously begins beta testing in the UK, France, Germany, and Japan,  provides a powerful set of Web-based services to help you manage your valuable information and resources.

Offered in a three-tiered set of services, beginning with the free Office Live Basics, Office Live provides a single source for a number of website management tools for the very small business.

Office Live Basics is a collection of free services that provide a small business with the core requirements for establishing an online identity.

Services include:

  • a company domain name
  • a Web site with 500 MB of storage
  • advanced site reporting tools
  • 25 company-branded e-mail accounts (each with 2 GB of storage) and instant messaging accounts
  • calendaring through Microsoft Office Live Mail
  • Site Designer
  • and the Microsoft Office Live adManager Beta.

Office Live Essentials, offered at $19.95 per month, includes all the features of Office Live Basics

Services include:

  • an additional 1 GB of Web site storage,
  • 50 company-branded e-mail, calendar and instant messaging accounts
  • Microsoft Office Live Business Contact Manager and
  • online Workspaces for 10 users with 500 MB of storage.

In addition, e-mail and appointments can be accessed offline with Microsoft Office Outlook® and Windows Mobile-powered phones.

Office Live Premium is $39.95 per month

Services include all the features of Office Live Basics and Office Live Essentials, and:

  • an additional 2 GB of Web site storage;
  • increased storage of 2 GB for the 50 company-branded e-mail, calendar and instant messaging accounts
  • an increased capacity for 20 additional users and 1 GB of storage for the Workspaces.

Office Live Premium also provides a set of Internet-based applications to help small-business owners streamline and automate management of their customers, projects and documents.

Here’s a list of Office Live resources and links:

Office Online
Office Live Home Page
Office Live beta Home Page
Office Live Blog
Chris Beiter’s Work Related Blog
Office Live Developer Guide
Office Live Accounting Express 2007 beta
Office Live Collaboration beta

And don’t forget to listen to our interview with Baris Cetinok of Office Live, recorded Nov. 10, 2006. A good overview of the new features of Office Live!