At over a year since the business and consumer launches of the Office 2007 System, the Office lineup of products has grown by another item. Expanding on the features of Office Outlook 2007, offered as a stand-alone product, Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager is designed to bring to the table contact management capabilities on top of Microsoft's latest email client. The new product is addressed at small businesses, and is positioned as a solution to streamline the processes of sharing and tracking clients and prospects.

"Small-business owners need effective solutions for managing their customer base," said Takeshi Numoto, general manager of Microsoft Office 2007 at Microsoft. "Currently, many small and home-based businesses keep their contacts in several different places - some in Rolodexes, some in spreadsheets. We understand the importance of good customer management and are providing simple and affordable solutions to help small businesses centralize their customer information so that keeping track of customers is more effective and less time-consuming."

Microsoft's vision for the new product is for small businesses to integrate Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager with Office Accounting 2008. In this manner, customers will be able to benefit from the centralization of financial data and even to put together invoices straight from Outlook. The retail version of Office Accounting Professional 2008 comes with a price tag of $199.95.

"Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager has gained substantial momentum since its release, with nearly 2 million registered users in just 12 months since the introduction of the 2007 version, and is now offered in 28 languages. In response to customer feedback, the product will be offered as a stand-alone product at $149.95 estimated retail price at retail and online. The product is also offered in Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 for $449.95, Microsoft Office Professional 2007 for $499 and Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $679.95," the company added.