Introduction:

The Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business is especially designed to fulfill all the requirements of small businesses. It has proved to be a very useful tool in solving the challenges a small business faces in day to day activities like creating documentations, presentations, publishing etc. It helps in improving the performance of individuals and thus increasing the productivity of

businesses. Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business is a collection of familiar integrated and easy to use programs. It helps in managing customers and their related data, helps in developing better sales opportunities, and makes the communication process easier and effective. Creating impressive sales and marketing materials, handling of e-mail messages and sharing of information efficiently and securely are some of its outstanding features.

Contents of Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business:

While designing Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business the requirements of small businesses were very well studied and kept in consideration. Hence, it is equipped with many new features that make it a must for small businesses. It includes Excel 2003, Outlook 2003, and Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint 2003, Publisher 2003, and Word 2003 with FrontPage2003.

System Requirements:

Before buying the Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business you should know about the system requirements for installing it. All you need is personal computer with an Intel Pentium 233-MHz (Pentium III or equivalent is recommended) or faster processor with 128 MB RAM or greater and a minimum of 380 MB of

available hard-disk space. You also need CD-ROM or DVD drives, Super VGA or higher resolution monitor and Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3, Windows XP, or later operating system. If you want to install Contact Manager for Outlook 2003 you need 256 MB of RAM and 450-MHz or faster processor, additional 360MB of available space on hard disk.

Buying Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business:

The Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business is available online as well as in stores. It is available for a new user at $449 US and for update at $279 US. This price may vary in some cases. The prices mentioned above are for customers from U.S. only. If you are using a prior version of Microsoft Office you can go for upgrade and avail the pack at a considerable low price of $279 U.S. If you are a new user and want to buy a complete version of Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business, you have to pay $449 US. But if you want to get the copy of Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business preinstalled from the vendor you are buying your new computer you save some amount of money as well as effort of installing it. This will also give you the confidence that your copy is officially licensed. Buying Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business from a value aided reseller (VAR) will help you get it at better price. These VARs also provide support services in future if at all any problems may occur. If you buy your copy of Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business from Microsoft directly you can get the online support from the Microsoft customer support.

Licensing:

If you have as few as five computers, through Microsoft volume licensing you can acquire the rights to use and manage multiple software solutions and save significant amount of money. For Small Businesses Microsoft Open License program is very beneficial. This is applicable for organizations having as few as 250 desktop PCs. With this program you need to buy a minimum of 5 licenses. You get the software at a discount price. You can create a standard image and deploy it to multiple machines and also can transfer the license from one machine to another.

Features of Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business:

1. Outlook 2003 efficiently handles the increasing volumes of e-mails, and protects the system and network from junk mails and viruses. It has made the processes of sharing information more efficient.

2. Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager for small businesses helps in gathering customer information in one place; it eases the following up and tracking of business opportunities. The sales and status reporting has become faster and easier. Managing of customer information has become simple.

3. Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 helps to create and publish impressive sales and marketing material in-house for printing, website, e-mailing, and presentations. It also provides with easy website building tools, and templates.

4. Excel 2003 has eased the process of structuring worksheets, performing calculations on the list and printing, converting the data to charts and tables. Some of the complex mathematical operations can be carried out easily on large data through this.

5. PowerPoint 2003 provides support for digital multimedia presentations in form of audio/video presentations and full screen video presentations. The presentation can be written to CD. Including PowerPoint 2003 viewer on the CD will enable people who do not use Microsoft office to view the presentation. You can also highlight the slides data using digital pens.

6. Word 2003 gives you instant access to electronic dictionaries, reference materials and online research site, without having to exit your document. It provides assistance on Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business Edition Online. Sharing, modifying and reviewing documents in real-time with other team members is possible now, if you have windows share-point services running on your system.

Drawbacks of Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003:

1. Windows 2000, XP or a later version is a must have for installing Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003.

2. This new version of Microsoft office does not have many new features; most of the features are carried as it is from the previous versions.

3. To avail certain features you need to have share point services installed which in turn needs windows server 2003 as the operating system.

4. For support from Microsoft you need to pay $35 U.S. for every call or email after the installation. And the support is available only from 5a.m to 9p.m. U.S. timings and on weekdays its from 6a.m. to 3p.m. which is not suitable for most of the clients world wide and also quite costly.

Verdict:

All these drawbacks are not very significant if you look at the long list of its features. The licensing policy is a bit relaxed as for previous versions. The overall performance of each component of Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business individually and with each other has improved a lot as compared to previous versions. So, depending on the needs, small businesses can go forward for buying a fresh copy or upgrading their office software with the new Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business. Its a mature product and an excellent upgrade for outlook users.

Related Topics:

1. Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003 - Features

2. Microsoft Small Business Server 2003