Microsoft small business software release fuels rivalry

PALO ALTO: In a move likely to fuel competition among small business software

providers, Microsoft Corp. on Monday said it was shipping its accounting and

payroll software for businesses with fewer than 25 employees and less than $5

million in annual revenue.

The new product is aimed most directly at Intuit Inc., vendor of the popular

QuickBooks small business software, but it also may compete with offerings from

Oracle Corp., which recently beefed up its business management software

portfolio with NetLedger's Web-based small business services.

"That absolutely is the core of QuickBooks and where we have tremendous

strength," said Allison Mnookin, director of product management for

Intuit's QuickBooks division, referring to the small business market Microsoft

now is eyeing.

According to Mnookin, more than three million small businesses use

QuickBooks. Microsoft's new product, called Small Business Manager, uses

technology from Microsoft's Great Plains Software Inc. acquisition earlier this

year.

Karen Engel, senior product manager for Small Business Manager, said

Microsoft's new offering is a step up from where QuickBooks is right now and

that it likely will compete more closely with QuickBooks' Premier products that

are due out by December and designed for bigger companies in specific

industries.

Microsoft's new software also was written to work with online small business

services from the company's bCentral division and ease the move up to existing

Great Plains products for larger small businesses, Engel said.

Pricing for Small Business Manager begins at $1,500, the company said.

(C) Reuters Limited.