Microsoft Corp. announced that it would offer Online Services to businesses of all sizes. The company said that it also opened restricted beta trial of the new services. The expanded services are expected to be available in the second half of the fiscal 2008.

Based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, the new services will enable businesses to access e-mail, calendaring, contacts, shared workspaces, and webconferencing and videoconferencing over the Web.

Microsoft said that the new services are managed through a single Web-based interface, designed to meet the needs of IT professionals. This security-enhanced interface will enable the IT professionals to watch the performance of the services, add and configure users, submit and track support requests, and manage users and licenses.