Microsoft Corp. today announced new Microsoft® Office Live Meeting subscription models and naming to augment the existing options and provide a more flexible, customizable and expansive way for customers to deploy Live Meeting across their entire organization. In addition to its present Shared Seat and Per-Minute Web conferencing subscription options, Live Meeting now offers the following models:

• The Named User model enables dedicated capacity for customers that schedule and conduct Live Meeting Web conferences with up to 15 participants, without incurring additional costs as their frequency of use increases.
• The Room model enables users to purchase any number of different-sized rooms based on their specific requirements. This model is ideal for customers that occasionally need to conduct large meetings.
• The Monthly Minutes model enhances the existing Per-Minute option. Customers now can sign up for a block of monthly minutes. This model provides the most flexibility for those customers that prefer to stay on the Per-Minute pricing option, while providing discounted rates for higher usage.

"We are strongly committed to creating more flexible ways for our customers to take advantage of and adopt the latest in online meeting technology," said Dustin Grosse, general manager for sales and marketing in the Real-Time Collaboration Business Unit at Microsoft. "The introduction of these new subscription models marks an evolution in the way customers are empowered to acquire, deploy and adopt real-time collaboration technologies. Having Named User Room and Monthly Minutes, in addition to the existing models, simplifies the administration and deployment of Web conferencing technology and provides multiple options for businesses of all sizes to change and improve the way they run their businesses."