Microsoft Corp. this week released its bCentral Site Manager, a new service designed to provide small-business owners with everything they need to build, host and maintain successful Web sites and sell products via the Internet.
Site Manager will be offered through bCentral, a Web-based small-business
portal that Microsoft launched in September. Site Manager is a core component of the bCentral’s suite of services created specifically to help small and growing businesses leverage the Internet.
This offering is the latest in a series of online services that Microsoft (MSFT)
is delivering for businesses of all sizes.
Site Manager is intended to help small-business owners build their own
Web sites by providing straightforward templates, layouts and design guides and then
providing automatic hosting for sites. The service also offers merchants a number of features at no additional charge to get their sites up and running.
Site Manager also allows small-business owners the flexibility to easily
modify or expand their online store as they grow their businesses. With the
help of the FrontPage 2000 Web site creation and management tool,
small-business owners will be able to build completely customized Web sites
to meet the unique needs of their business. This can be done independently
or with one of several hundred thousand developers in FrontPage.
To steer customers toward their new Web sites, Site Manager users have
the option of using bCentral’s Web marketing services. Once the site is fully
operational, they can then use these marketing services to get their URL
submitted to search engines and advertise their site on the Web. In
addition, small businesses can view their portfolio of building, hosting and
marketing services in the My Business section of bCentral.
Site Manager costs $39.95 a month. Organizations can sign up for the service through bCentral.