Microsoft offers new small-business resources

IDG News Service - Microsoft Corp. today began a rollout of a new set of online resources and technical support for its small-business customers.
Small Business Plus is part of the company's 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.
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. That content and support can be accessed 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 is complete on Feb. 2. The product will go live in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada on Monday. It will reach Germany on Jan. 30, the Netherlands on Jan. 31, Italy on Feb. 1 and France on Feb. 2.
Customers can sign up for Small Business Plus for free. By providing information about their company, small-business customers gain access to a self-service environment that gives them answers to questions about software products, along with 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 that he or she must pay for that kind of chat-based technical support.
Small-business customers can purchase that support through Small Business Expert, a yearly subscription service that provides a mix of online chat and over-the-phone technical support, Leland said.
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