Microsoft Plans Small Business Channel

Microsoft will establish a channel of resellers to serve a broad base of businesses with up to 25 employees. Details of the program will be spelled out later this year, said Orlando Ayala, senior vice president of small and midmarket solutions and partners. The program will be designed for Microsoft's "classic" VARs, who sell Microsoft networking and system products such as Small Business Server 2003. "We want the classic VARs to become more specialized," Ayala said in an interview at Microsoft's Convergence user conference, here. A Web-based small business center will be established to provide information to both VARs and the businesses they serve. Microsoft will segment the market by SIC code.