By John Oates, 9 November 1999 17:11
NEWS Microsoft has finally announced details of its long-awaited Application Service Provision plans with pilot projects scheduled to precede a full roll-out in the first half of next year. Users will be able to pay a flat fee for using Office, the desktop application software suite, over the Web. Microsoft will not rent the software directly but through partners like BT, Equant and Qwest. Jeremy Gittins, group marketing manager business productivity division at Microsoft, said: "We have 100 million users of Office worldwide, and now we can make it available in other ways." Asked if this heralds the end of shrink-wrapped software sales, Gittins conceded that there may be some erosion of sales, but insisted it is an opportunity for Microsoft partners to offer the kind of IT service enjoyed by large organisations to people in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Angus Fox, product manager for applications in the Internet multimedia division, said: "This is a revenue opportunity for us. We are not exactly sure how we will charge for it, but our research shows that people typically want a flat monthly charge." He believed typical customers will be SMEs or branches of larger organisations and workers who spend a lot of time on the road.
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