Microsoft has begun an eight-country rollout of a new set of online resources and technical support for its small-business customers, a company executive said Friday.
The new offering, called Small Business Plus, is part of the company's ongoing effort to provide better access to software, support and services for this customer segment, said Doug Leland, general manager for small business in Microsoft's Worldwide Small and Midsize Solutions and Partner Group.
Custom Content
The resources of Small Business Plus include content and technical support that is personalized using information that a customer provides when signing up for the service. Customers can access that content and support through the Small Business Center Web site, which Microsoft set up in March 2004 as an online portal for its small-business customers. The company has been trying for some time to make its software easier for that segment to deploy and purchase, Leland said.
Small Business Plus will be available in eight countries once the rollout, which began Monday, is complete on February 2. The offering will go live first in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada. It will reach Germany on January 30, the Netherlands on January 31, Italy on February 1 and France on February 2.
Customers can sign up online for free access to Small Business Plus. By providing information about their company, small-business customers gain access to a self-service environment that answers common questions about software products, and offers service packs, articles, patches, and Webcasts that might be helpful to them, Leland said. The information is customized for companies based on their sign-up information, he said.
Customers also can chat for free with live customer service representatives for quick advice on products, he said. However, if those calls become too lengthy or complicated, an agent will inform a customer they must pay for that kind of chat-based technical support. Small-business customers can purchase support through Small Business Expert, a yearly subscription service that provides a mix of online chat and telephone technical support, Leland said.
Pricing and Options
Small Business Expert comes in bronze, silver, and gold packages, each with a yearly subscription fee. Bronze packages provide six online chats for $149; silver provides unlimited online chats for $299; and gold combines unlimited online chat support with phone support for $499. New members of Small Business Plus in the U.S. and the U.K. receive the silver package on a free trial basis for 45 days, Leland said.
Before Small Business Plus, small-business customers had to pay $250 for phone-based technical support per incident, he said. While Microsoft offers free technical support for many of its software products, it is not a guarantee for all the products a small company might use, so Small Business Expert is a good deal, Leland said.
Those who sign up for Small Business Plus also are eligible for software product training, as well as business training that will help employees of small businesses use Microsoft technology in their particular roles in the business, he said. Software training is available for the Office Suite and Office Small Business Accounting products. Business training--which Microsoft partners will help the company provide--will be customized for marketing, management and technology professionals, among other roles.
Chat-based technical support is available through Small Business Support for the following products: Internet Explorer; Outlook Express; Windows Media Player; Office Small Business and Office Pro including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Business Contact Manager, and Publisher; Windows Standard Server; and Small Business Server and its components, including Exchange Standard Server, SQL Standard Server, ISA Server, FrontPage and SharePoint services.
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