VERIO, CONCENTRIC, OTHERS TO OFFER OFFICE 2000 APPLICATIONS FOR RENT OVER THE INTERNET: Seven Firms Plan To Participate In New Microsoft 'Office Online' Pilot Program.

Verio Inc., the Englewood, Colo., operator of Web sites for businesses and a leading provider of Internet services, is one of at least seven high-tech firms expected to participate in a new pilot program spearheaded by Microsoft Corp. that will make Office 2000 applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, FrontPage and Outlook, available to end users on an outsourced or "rented" basis. Verio will begin beta trials of the new application service with customers by the end of 1999, with widespread availability of the services through Verio to be announced later.

"Verio's Web-hosting expertise is a wonderful addition to the Office Online pilot program," says Steven Sinofsky, vice president of Microsoft Office. "We look forward to leveraging Verio's years of experience in hosting popular Internet applications, such as e-mail and e-commerce, to help pave the way for the delivery of Office 2000 applications over the Internet."

San Jose, Calif.-based Concentric Network Corp. will also participate in the pilot program. When Concentric's pilot commences in early 2000, customers will use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office applications via the Internet, instead of having the software installed on their PCs. The Office applications will reside on Concentric servers, allowing users to access the latest version of Office without having to make an upfront investment and without having to install or maintain the software. Outsourcing Office also allows users to access the application from any computer, and save their documents to a secure server in the Concentric Network.

The Office Online pilot is Microsoft's reaction to the fast growing Application Service Provider (ASP) movement, where expensive software applications can be rented as needed, instead of purchased and loaded onto client machines.

Some analysts say the new Microsoft experiment was sparked by Sun's recent acquisition of rival office suite software maker Star Division Corp. and Sun's subsequent plans to make the StarOffice Suite available free via a service-driven web portal (see EDP Weekly -- IT Monitor, Sept. 6, pg. 5).

Microsoft has yet to iron out a pricing scheme for the rental program. Other participants in the pilot include British Telecommunications PLC, Quest Communications, Micron Electronics and FutureLink.