Microsoft adds new features, tools to its Office Live service

Microsoft, the world’s leading software company, on Monday announced that it is adding new features and enhancements to its Office Live Small Business service, in an effort to help small businesses more easily and affordably take, promote and manage their businesses online.

The updated service supports many new features including Firefox browsers, and adds e-commerce and marketing options. The service now features Store Manager, an e-commerce tool to help small businesses easily sell products on their own Web site and on eBay, and E-mail Marketing beta that is designed to make sending e-mail newsletters and promotions simple and affordable.

Until now, customers had to choose between Basics, Essentials, and Premium modes, now, in the new version they can start from the same place for free, and can add as much as they need at extra cost.

"Today having a professional Web site is as essential to running a small business as having business cards," said Baris Cetinok, director of product management and marketing for Microsoft Office Live Small Business. "By making it simple and affordable to develop and maintain a Web site, and offering user-friendly sales and marketing features, Office Live Small Business provides a one-stop shop to help small businesses easily take, promote and manage their businesses online."

Small businesses generally do not know how to take advantage of online marketing techniques to drive traffic and sales even after making their Web site so the company has designed the features keeping the specific needs of small businesses in mind, Cetinok said.

"Our Store Manager e-commerce tool, our e-mail marketing feature, and the updated adManager search marketing tool are user-friendly and low cost, and work together," he continued.

Following are the new features:

Store Manager ($39.95 per month): This is a hosted e-commerce tool that enables customers to sell products on their Office Live Small Business Web site and on eBay.

E-mail Marketing beta: This feature, which is free for up to 200 e-mails a month and 5 cents per e-mail beyond that, makes it possible to connect to customers by sending newsletters, promotions and updates within attractive e-mails that match the look and feel of the Web site.

adManager: This feature enables users choose their search terms and a monthly budget, as low as $2 a month, and search ads for your business will appear from Live Search, Ask.com, Evite, Citysearch, and others.

Unified Analytics, Workspaces, Advanced Web site design tools, Firefox support, Private domain name registration and Premium e-mail ($19.95 per year are the other features that make the service more efficient.

The Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has described its Office Live Small Business as an award-winning service that offers a complete, affordable set of easy-to-use Internet-based tools that help small-business owners get online, attract customers and manage their business.

The service currently has almost 600,000 customers worldwide, in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan.