Microsoft Office Live Integrates Hosting, Email, Web Shop and Back End

[mandy]

Microsoft Office Live is here, and offers site design, payment transactions, accounting tie-ins and search optimization for those who want an e-commerce solution with business functionality such as e-mail management and online collaboration...

Office Live is certainly an ambitious undertaking — both for Microsoft and a small business owner who commits to the platform. It delivers business-class Web-based e-mail, Web site hosting and development, online collaboration and calendaring, online accounting, online file storage and sharing, entry-level CRM and project management, and more.

That fairly daunting list is made more manageable by a clean, consistent interface across all the different modules, featuring "dashboards" that give you an overview in each area and clearly labeled tabs for access to more specific areas of a module. And an omnipresent, context-sensitive Resource Center pane on the right hand side of the screen provides links to articles and advice about the topic at hand. So you can start with the e-mail and Web features, then incorporate other aspects as your comfort level grows...

full article: http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/resources...hp/3646991

[FiberGuy]

Hmmm.... I'm wondrin' where they're getting the information regarding a "web shop".

Office Live benefits do not include e-commerce "yet", nor have they announced as to when they will roll out an e-commerce platform.  A hosted shopping cart, Office Live is not... not now anyhow.  >

http://officelivecommunity.com/default.aspx

[stardust]

I could be wrong, but the full ecommerce solution requires $.  The free site has no ecommerce.

Their MSN Messenger/homepage/e-mail are sukky.  Why would I trust any more of it?  pooey.

[FiberGuy]

[quote author=stardust link=topic=6207.msg35162#msg35162 date=1165344434]
I could be wrong, but the full ecommerce solution requires $.  The free site has no ecommerce.

[/quote]

Neither Office Live Essentials ($19.95/month) nor Office Live Premium ($39.95/month) offer any sort of e-commerce support at this time. 

Here's a comment from a Microsoft rep:  http://boards.live.com/officeliveboards/...adID=28753&BoardsParam=PostID%3D431608

E-commerce has been an oft requested feature which we are considering at some level for the future (post-beta).

"...considering at some level of the future..." ? ? ? ? 

That's the closest thing to an answer that I've got from any Microsoft rep. 

Cheers

[stardust]

Well, I knew they were charging $ for something... Guess I didn't read the fine print.