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Thursday, 05 November 2009 00:00 |
 Microsoft announced a few days ago that it has reduced the prices of a few products under its "Microsoft Online Services" banner. The price of Microsoft BPOS, its much hyped hosted communication and collaboration product including SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and LiveMeeting, has been reduced from $15 per user per month to $10 per user per month. The price of SharePoint Online stand alone has been reduced to $5.25 from $7.25, while the price of Exchange Online has been reduced from $10 to $5. Many analysts are seeing this as a move to counter Google Apps growing clout in the enterprise market. Others see this as a move to win over more Lotus Notes customers, because a big chunk of BPOS converts are ex Lotus Notes users. Microsoft however, is denying both claims saying that it is merely in reaction to increased economies of scale since the product was launched. So does this price cut mean that BPOS and other Online Services products are more lucrative for the small and medium sized companies domain? Not really. Inspite of the reduced prices, BPOS remains a complex product which smaller businesses cannot implement on their own. Hiring the services of consultants to assist with implementation leads to higher total costs. It is for this reason Microsoft is pushing BPOS out through its partner network. One partner made $167 per seat offering training, implementation and other services around BPOS. I came across a very good feature and cost comparison of Microsoft BPOS and Google Apps and HyperOffice, another player in the online collaboration software domain, which specializes in small businesses. Do check it out.
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Last Updated on Monday, 16 November 2009 13:35 |
