Report From COMDEX: Microsoft Launches bCentral.ca at Comdex Toronto

📅 July 12, 2001 - The lights dim, and to the slightly jarring sounds of Jimi Hendrix's "are you experienced?," Frank Clegg, president of Microsoft Canada takes the elaborately decked-out stage to address a subterranean auditorium packed with the media representatives and attendees of the Comdex Toronto 2001 conference.
Clegg discussed topics as varied as Microsoft's portfolio in an hour-long keynote presentation Thursday, as polished as you?d expect from the software giant, that included, at times, a skateboarding intern, a product manager brandishing a prototype tablet PC and some live on-stage video conferencing.
Clegg discussed the progress of Microsoft's .NET platform, offered a demonstration of the upcoming Windows XP operating system and, in some immediately relevant news, introduced the country to Microsoft's new business services portal Web site, located at bCentral.ca.
"You need end-to-end solutions and support, and you need them at a reasonable cost," said Clegg, adding that Microsoft would begin addressing those needs with the launch of bCentral, which went live on Thursday. Clegg says the site is designed to provide businesses with a set of Web-based services that make business processes more efficient and cost effective.
In addition to software services, the bCentral.ca site includes a number of uniquely Canadian features, including information about technology, business tips, advice and how-to articles.
But Clegg was sure to make the distinction that bCentral is not just a portal, or an ASP. The Web site, he says, is a delivery mechanism for the company's software and services.
For a monthly subscription fee, said Clegg, users will have access to some powerful Web-based services, including the ability to create, edit and update their Web sites through bCentral's Web Site Manager tool, the ability to market their online operations through the site's search engine submission and list building tools, the ability to operate transactions and manage finances online and the ability to track leads and close sales with bCentral's customer management tools.
In an impressive demonstration of the Web site's capabilities (and the capabilities of the equipment onstage), product manager for bCentral.ca, Ken Hedrick took the audience through the site building software, adding, updating and viewing pages to a live site run by one of Microsoft's customers.
"When you look at this concept of using the Web to let us offer software as a service, bCentral takes us another big step forward in the realization of .NET," said Clegg.
In fact, according to Clegg, bCentral was the latest step in the evolution of the .NET plan, the company's platform for developing XML Web services, and the project upon which Microsoft says it is building its future.
In an ongoing development, the software company says it is building toward offering services online, that are compatible with any operating system, can share information with each other, and are available from anywhere, anytime. And, says Clegg, bCentral.ca is a step in that direction.