To the critics of Office Live, plus some good ideas for MS

Hi this was my reply to a guy that complained about MS's office live...you can view his post here.

I have to respectfully disagree with the gentlemen above for a few reasons. While common sense usually trumps reality, I think we may have missed the point a bit. From MS's standpoint, it was a gamble going into this market and evening having a free offering. True, Microsoft does have deep pockets which only adds to expectations. Please understand that those "that move up in the line" are not exactly in front of us. An email stated there would be some problems with logging in and such, it is only natural to expect MS to stay in business for all other newcomers. It was indeed a new release for the public, not so much as the beta testers :). I have posted in the forums previously and have shared many of the same frustrations as every other OL user. In most cases ingenuity has trumped MS's shortcomings...You can't really expect everything handed to you on a silver platter can you? Flunked Business 101? To quote,
"Microsoft Corp. today announced first quarter revenue of $10.81 billion for the period ended September 30, 2006, an 11% increase over the same quarter of the prior year" (http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY07/earn_rel_q1_07.mspx).

I tend to think they get some things right and some things they miss on like most businesses, including Google. This was a hit. I truly hope microst will increase their offerings, this means offering true e-commerce capability. The ingenuity of many has trumped this looming obstacle. All you need to is look in the forums and in many cases the information you need is right there. The solutions that they provide for "business" has allowed businesses with 10 or fewer employees to get online and supplement their existing businesses and in my case, start one.

Secondly, there is a huge step between basics and essentials. The site reporting alone is worth the extra expense. I have also taken advantage of the extra email addresses to grow and promote my site.

So where does Microsoft drop the ball? AdCenter should be a more integral part of Office Live. If your're going to charge people to host their sites online-at least understand where synergies are and take advantage of them. AdCenter is one and Microsoft Small Business Center is another. A purchase of Check Free to add e-commerce capability might be a good look (http://www.checkfree.com/). Whats the use in having thousands of basic sites that offer just a hope of upgrading? Honestly, I didn't feel compelled to upgrade because Essentials lacked e-commerce capability.

I hope that this comment reaches someone that can address the issues. Until next time folks, lets give MS our support!