Office Live Small Business was upgraded yesterday by Microsoft. The entry level service is now free and greatly enhanced with the addition of business applications modules alongside a free domain and on-line web site design service.

Individuals and small professional service networks now have access to a powerful online tool that provides both a public facing web site and a secure password protected email, document management, applications and online marketing space that can be accessed from a browser. With support for the Firefox web browser the service is also now accessible by clients, associates and colleagues who may be on a Mac so is likely to attract a lot of interest from marketing and design professionals.

The service works easily alongside Office Live Workspaces (wait list in the UK)  - an online space for sharing personal documents and data lists. It is also now integrated with Shared View - Microsoft's online collaboration and screen sharing tool.

Whilst their are many browser based solutions for web site design, emarketing, contact management, document management and online collaboration, none are currently as comprehensive as Office Live Small Business.

With the added option to access a range of standard business applications (e.g. project manager) for free or invest in building or buying your own custom applications, this is great step forward for the professional looking for a simple and cost-effective solution to work online.