December 1, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Software giant Microsoft (microsoft.com) and communications carrier British Telecom (bt.com) announced on Wednesday that they have signed an IT services agreement, valued at $7 million, for a series of strategic projects that will enable BT to offer Internet-based Microsoft software and services to its customers.
By implementing Microsoft’s .NET-based solution, BT will be able to offer email, shared calendar and contacts and other software applications. The first project to launch is an email service for smaller businesses, based on Microsoft Hosted Exchange.
Hewlett-Packard and Tata Consultancy Services are working closely with Microsoft Consulting Services to implement the hosted services.
“Using the Microsoft .NET-based framework as the core of this infrastructure, we will be able to deliver a ‘plug and play’ facility for launching Internet-hosted software services, initially to smaller businesses in the UK. Our aim is to offer these businesses a way to reduce or eliminate the initial capital outlays and ongoing maintenance costs that are associated with managing IT in-house,” says Duncan Ingram, managing director of BT Openworld. “BT, together with Microsoft, aims to make IT applications and services simple to use, affordable and of good value. By offering an ‘a la carte’ menu of services that can be tailored to the diverse needs of a smaller business, we can deliver a level of customer service and support that we believe will help us both to drive new revenue streams.”
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