Office Live is not MS Office (and a lacy keyboard)

In today's IT Blogwatch, we look at Office Live -- is it alive or dead? Not to mention eat and type off the same tablecloth ...

The release of Office Live could be confusing some as it's nothing to do with Microsoft Office. As Kent Newsome agrees "I guess I've been asleep at the keyboard, because while I have heard of Office Live, I was completely wrong about what it is. I thought it was online versions of Microsoft Office- you know Word, Excel and all that. Turns out it is a website hosting and development tool for small businesses. And based on my reading this morning, I'm not the only person who was mistaken about Office Live ... While I agree that small business is a growth area, it blows my mind that so many people are confused about what Office Live is or is not. This was either some bizarre marketing strategy by Microsoft or failure to manage the opening properly. The buzz that the term Office Live generates fades into confusion and disappointment upon closer review. I'm not a marketing guru, but why not call it Business Live ... this unnecessary confusion is too bad, because it looks like Office Live is a pretty neat service ... even better today is this little nugget I found over at JK's. A free hosted Exchange service. Now that's something a lot of small businesses really need. Why is this not getting more attention?"

» Robert Scoble, Scobleizer:  "So, I hung out with the Office Live team last week and got the skinny. Office Live isn’t what you think it is ... So, what is Office Live? It’s aimed at very small businesses. Think of my prototypical small-town plumber. Maybe has three employees. But needs a Web site that he or she can edit. Some email addresses. And a few other services to help run their business ...   The LiveSide blog has more."  Which drew this response from Christopher Coulter:  "So, what is Office Live? Some sharewareish web portal .Mac-badly-smudged-photocopy copycat aimed at EXTREMELY small biz’s? This from an ENTERPRISE infrastructure software company? OfficeLive SAYS hosted Office, you are dead in the water with that marketing. If you even have to pose the question, it’s game over. But what REALLY is OfficeLive? Just Ray Ozzie playing collaborative tiddlywinks with webby tricks on a ad-sponsored binge-fest, with a small unfocused team, as Microsoft got all uppity Google-spooked. Let’s be honest for once … "

» Jeremy Reimer, Arstechnica: "Microsoft first announced the creation of Office Live and Windows Live last November ... Office Live is actually an umbrella term for a collection of web services that help small businesses organize information they generate from their existing copies of Microsoft Office. The goal is to provide the same sorts of services that a larger organization might have as part of a company intranet ... The plan is to package Office Live services in three different bundles ... Office Live Basics ... Office Live Collaboration ... Office Live Essentials ... The beta test program is free and available to all applicants who live in the United States. International beta testing programs are planned for later this year, and final public versions of Office Live are expected to be released in late 2006. No doubt pricing will be set based partly on feedback from the beta testers ... hoping that they can not only cash in on the hype generated by companies like Google for web-based services, but help convince customers that they should stick with Microsoft Office in order to get the most out of these services ... a clever plan, but its success hinges crucially on the quality of the Live software. Reviews of SharePoint are mixed, with some marveling at its ease of use while others find its document management abilities limiting. There is also the issue of companies feeling nervous about hosting sensitive information on Microsoft-operated web sites. Still, the evolution of Office Live will be interesting to watch."

» Tekmaven, bink.nu: "created to empower small businesses with online capabilities that previously have been unaffordable or too technologically complex for to set up and maintain. Microsoft Office Live offerings are geared to small businesses with fewer than 10 employees, and are designed to help you establish an online presence, automate key internal and external business tasks, and collaborate with employees, partners, and customers ...  As part of the Office Live Collaboration offering, you have access to more than 20 powerful and versatile business applications important to managing a business. These tools can assist you in everything from customer and project management to sales, marketing, and human resources. Because Microsoft hosts and supports the entire solution, your company saves the cost of expensive IT infrastructure and maintenance."

»  HunterStrat: "Office Live provides a two tiered package of Web hosting and email with one level free and ad supported. There is also an 'intranet replacement' collaboration package based on Windows SharePoint Services for SMBs who already have their own external web sites. All are free during the beta ...  The use of 'Office' in 'Office Live' apparently connotes business usage, and that’s it. Jupiter Research’s Joe Wilcox [advises What Office Live Is Not] ... So I guess we take it for what it is. There may well be a play in the hosted 'intranet replacement' offering if they roll out some useful applications, but that’s a story we heard about the now defunct bCentral too (e.g. [1], [2]). Presumably, Microsoft thinks they’ll have more luck this time around, but it’s not clear why."

» Kevin 2.0: "In the 'too funny not share' category that I don’t have: I just went to check the buzz on the new Microsoft OfficeLive beta. I’m reading along and I see all this web-based service and management info. Sounds great, right? I dig a little deeper into the three plans they’re offering, so far so good. I decide to click the 'Learn More' link on one of the plans and I get the screen above. I’m sure it’s just due to heavy web traffic, but if Microsoft wants me to pay for their managed web services, shouldn’t they prove they can manage their own? OfficeLive is dead; long live OfficeLive!

Buffer overflow:

• James Kendrick: The death of Palm OS
• Ken "Caesar" Fisher: California tying education tech grants to copyright education
• Nate Anderson: Ad-supported books arrive at last
• Nathan Torkington: Digital Film
• Carl Howe: XBox 360 shortages may have been caused by Infineon and Samsung chips
• Philip Letts: Microsoft's Gates weighs in on China privacy debate
• Dave Oliver: SXIP & Identity 2.0
• Dave Katz: Tivo Galleon Developer Calls it Quits
• Josh: AJAX Security
  
• Mark Evans: Google Snaps Up MeasureMap
• Michael Santo: U.K. Wants Backdoor Into Vista PCs
• Vladimir Stojanovski: Layoffs bring clarity to Oracle's CRM direction
• Techdirt: The China Situation: When Politics, Business And Culture Clash
• Global News Update: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2006
• Martin McKeay: Hello, are you there?
• Tony Asaro: Who is Afraid of Microsoft?
• Martin McKeay: Did we see the same keynote speech?
• Shark Tank: Why we love our users, episode 4,796
• Douglas Schweitzer: Microsoft making a giant step in the right direction
• Martin MC Brown: Oracle, BDB and future prediction

And finally...   Eat and type off the same tablecloth

Richi (has gone to another timezone, temporarily, so the antipodean is blogging this week) is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk. Also contributing to today's post: Judi Dey, our very own Antipodean.