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News >> Technology >>
Microsoft courts SMBs
By agencies
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Monday, 11 July 2005, 19:30 IST
SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp is making a major push this weekend to sell more software and services to companies that have less than 250 employees as the world's largest software maker faces slower revenue growth.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, will be speaking to the 6,000-plus distributors, hardware makers, systems consultants and software developers that sell the company's software as partners, or resellers.
The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, or annual meeting for distributors, is being held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Although Ballmer is expected to talk about some of the new capabilities of the next releases of Windows and Office that are due out next year, Microsoft will also try to get its partners to promote its software as being more secure and also more adaptable for small- and medium-sized businesses.
"We are making sure that we are really understanding what the product, business and technology needs are for our mid-market customers," said Doug Leland, a general manager at Microsoft.
In an announcement on Friday, Microsoft said its small business accounting software, due to launch by the end of this year, will be able to process credit and debit card payments so that smaller companies can cut down on paperwork, cut costs and expand customers' payment options.
Microsoft also said that it will adopt a certification program for system developers and resellers that will identify them as specialists in the small business software market.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is beefing up its offerings as part of a broader effort to turn its small- and mid-size software business into a $10 billion business by 2010.
For the fiscal year ended in June, Microsoft is expecting to report sales growth of about 8 percent, its slowest revenue growth rate since listing going public in 1986.
Microsoft has spent more than $2.5 billion to buy Great Plains Software, a small-business software maker in Fargo, North Dakota, and Navision, a Danish software company, to build its software business for small- and mid-sized companies.
Seeking to plug a hole in its pricing structure that made it relatively more expensive for mid-sized businesses, companies with 50 to 250 employees, to buy its server software products, Microsoft announced price cuts this week for that tier of customers.
Microsoft said it will offer its Windows Server, Exchange e-mail server and network monitoring software for 20 percent less than if they were purchased separately.