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COMMERCIAL PROFILE:Microsoft's newly available Business Productivity Online Suite has the potential to revolutionise the way businesses organise themselves In the future we will be opening up the suite to partner developers and other third parties who will be able to add to it as well

UNTIL NOW, if an organisation wanted to give staff full mobile access to e-mail systems, corporate networks and other IT facilities, they had to make significant investments in hardware and software, as well as devote considerable resources in terms of IT staff and administration time to maintaining the systems.

This has been expensive, both in terms of finance and other resources, and has meant smaller organisations in particular have been unable to reap the full benefits available to them through modern information and communications technology.

As of this month, this need no longer be the case. Microsoft has made its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), part of Microsoft Online Services, available for trial to businesses of all sizes in 19 countries, including Ireland. Additionally, Microsoft is releasing Office Communications Online, for instant messaging and presence, and the Business Productivity Online Deskless Worker Suite, the most economical e-mail, calendaring and collaboration service for occasional users.

Microsoft Online Services open up new possibilities for businesses to control costs and do more with less, without impacting on the productivity of their employees. Customers can save 10-50 per cent in IT-related expenditures as a result of deploying Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting.

In essence, BPOS allows organisations to avail of a broad range of communications and other services hosted online by Microsoft, for a small monthly fee per user. There is no hardware to provision; no additional server software to buy, install or configure; and no expensive maintenance required. With simple services that are easily deployed and scaled, organisations can find the best solution for their budget and their changing needs.

"Microsoft has never done this before outside the US and this represents a significant change for us," says Richard Moore, information worker business manager with Microsoft Ireland.

"Up until now we have been very strongly biased towards what has become known as 'on premise' applications - those that were office-based. However, we have been moving out into 'the cloud', as it is known, and BPOS brings together the best of our rich on-premise applications and flexible internet-based hosted services."

He says there is a huge difference between the "software as a service" concept promoted by some internet-based service providers, and the Microsoft offering. "What we are offering is software plus services," he says.

"The kind of person who will be using BPOS products will still be using Outlook and other applications on their desktop or other device to access their e-mail, documents, and so on. What we are offering with BPOS is the ability to access all of their office communications services, as well as all of the information and documentation they might need from their network from any device, anytime and from any place."

And Microsoft will do all of the hard work in terms of hosting the service and offering cost competitive rates. Organisations can subscribe to Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting, individually or as a suite, for €12.78 per user per month.

This is akin to the application service provider (ASP) model which was envisaged a number of years ago, but which never really took off. "Internet connectivity is far more ubiquitous now," says Moore. "People can connect over wireless networks, mobile telephone networks, fixed-line broadband and so on. This has given it far greater legitimacy as a delivery tool for services like these."

The service is effectively future-proofed. "As new features emerge and are added, the suite will automatically be updated centrally by Microsoft," Moore adds. "You won't have a situation where network administrators have to take systems down while they implement updates - it will all be done in the background, at no additional cost."

In effect, it's one application - or suite of applications - for life at an affordable, monthly, per user cost. There's more to come, Moore says. "We are now moving towards a new model of applications development where there are fewer milestones or major new losses, and lots of small updates and upgrades with the products and services evolving over time. Also, in the future we will be opening up the suite to partner developers and other third parties who will be able to add to it as well. It's a very exciting time."

One organisation which is already reaping the benefits of the Microsoft BPOS is the Chernobyl Children's Project International (CCPI), fronted by Adi Roche. The charity has recently implemented the SharePoint Online and Office Communications Online elements of the suite to improve communications with its network of volunteers throughout Ireland, as well as with its office in Minsk.

"We have 2,500 volunteers throughout Ireland including fundraisers, host families, board members and so on - even Adi Roche is a volunteer, she takes no salary from the organisation," says Miriam Forde, CCPI fundraising and communications manager. "The new Microsoft online services are helping us increase our productivity and efficiency, reduce costs, and are saving time."

The new services allow the volunteers to have access to the full range of documentation from the charity, as well as to communicate more effectively with each other. "They can access all of the latest presentations and documents from a central resource for use in their fundraising activities," says Forde. "For example, we have tens of thousands of images online, and our volunteers now have easy and instant access to these. Also, the volunteers can communicate far more effectively with each other and share information and experiences on initiatives."

Organisations can sign up for a free 30-day Microsoft BPOS trial at www.microsoft.ie. According to Richard Moore: "The suite of productivity tools can enable organisations to communicate and collaborate efficiently and effectively, while enabling their IT resources to focus on more business-critical tasks. And with services hosted by Microsoft, they can have peace of mind, knowing experts are managing their IT - and their services will be available when they need them."