NitroSell Joins Microsoft Live Partner Council
Posted 27th Feb, 2007
NitroSell"s thought leadership in the integrated eCommerce space has been substantiated by the recent appointment of NitroSell president Tom Keane to the Microsoft Live Partner Advisory Council (Live PAC).The exclusive, invitation-only Live PAC council was instigated by Steve Ballmer. Its mission is to gather and disseminate Global and Enterprise Manager Partner feedback on Microsoft’s strategic Live products, campaigns, competitive positioning, and go-to-market strategies.
"We are delighted and honored to accept Microsoft"s invitation to join the Live Partner Advisory Council," said Tom Keane, NitroSell President and Chief Evangelist. "We"ve already had the first PAC meeting in Redmond. It was a wonderful opportunity to work more closely with Microsoft - and a select group of leading and extremely capable partners around the world - to influence the development and deployment of new market-disruptive, SaaS-based Microsoft solutions. We consider our participation in Live PAC as a way to give back to the retail community, while helping Microsoft extend their offerings to SMB companies that constitute the Web 2.0 long tail, something that NitroSell has considerable experience doing."
Microsoft Live comprises two families of Web services: one for consumers, called Windows Live, and one for small businesses, called Office Live. Both are loose online counterparts to its Windows and Office software franchises, respectively.
According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the growing Live family of products and services will transform the kinds of products and services that Microsoft and its partners will be selling throughout the coming decade. Ballmer described Live as "all about using the Internet to remake the software business itself."
Along with the many standard benefits of Office Live, NitroSell is adding functionality that provides a very affordable platform for retailers to sell and process orders online. Smart retailers running a combination of the NitroSell WebStore solution and Microsoft Dynamics RMS can plug directly into their Office Live Web site for a simple-to-implement eCommerce offering. The upshot is that they can now cost-effectively challenge bigger and more established eCommerce players.
Retailers will be able to manage two sales channels, with one system enabling their online customers to see up-to-the-minute product information before they buy, including stock levels, special offers, and pricing. Web orders are downloaded directly from Office Live into RMS, enabling order processing and fulfillment to be handled with little or no staff training.