BackOffice� 1.5 Offers Tighter Integration with Windows� 95/ Office 95

The vast majority of Windows� 95 operating system and Office for Windows 95 customers are likely prospects for the BackOffice� family of products sales since:

Product Information

Product Description

Microsoft BackOffice version 1.5 is an integrated family of server software built on the Windows NT Server operating system. The family consists of Windows NT Server 3.51, as the network foundation; Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 for managing and storing data; Microsoft SNA Server 2.11 for host connectivity; Systems Management Server 1.1 for managing PCs and servers; and Microsoft Mail Server 3.5 for distributing information. BackOffice 1.5 represents a significant upgrade of each one of the individual components in the family, and includes tighter integration within the family and with Windows 95 and Office 95.

The Microsoft BackOffice family of server software is available, for the first time, as a single packaged SKU. This BackOffice 1.5 Server Product will include a unified installation program for all component server software, and must be installed on a single server machine. Each of the BackOffice family of server software will continue to be available individually.

The Microsoft BackOffice 1.5 product has two main components:

  1. The Microsoft BackOffice Client Access License gives a desktop access to any of the BackOffice component software running on any server in an organization, regardless of whether the server is running all of the BackOffice components or any of the individual components (i.e., Windows NT Server on one server, Microsoft SQL Server on another server, Microsoft Mail Server on a third, etc.). In most cases, this license is the most flexible and cost-effective one for users accessing three or more of the BackOffice component servers.
  2. The Microsoft BackOffice Server License is targeted primarily at small businesses, branch offices, multiprocessing machines, and for client-server development. The BackOffice Server License gives a customer the right to run all of the BackOffice component software on a single server machine. Similar to Microsoft Office, the BackOffice Server Product has to be installed on a single machine.

BackOffice Features and Benefits

  1. Each BackOffice component follows similar installation and setup processes: Includes a launch program that provides you with an automated setup process for installing the BackOffice server applications. Setup and configuration is dramatically simplified because of batch driven setups, ease of adding additional connectivity and server services, autodetection of network protocols, network cards and peripherals, consistent and comprehensive help, and automated setup of Windows-based clients.
  2. Seamless integration with the desktop: Offers enhanced integration with Windows 95 and Office 95, and a consistent Windows-based user interface between the desktop and the server. Offers solution developers a consistent development and operating environment, thus lowering development, support, and training costs. Provides the best network performance for Windows-based desktops, including fast query of documents on a Windows NT Server. Includes unattended installation, management, remote control and troubleshooting of desktop software. Includes special automated installation of Windows 95 and Office 95 across large sites through Systems Management Server. Supports Windows 95 long file names.
  3. Complete Windows-based administration across BackOffice components: Provides a consistent, easy to use centralized management environment across the entire BackOffice suite of products. If you know how to administer one BackOffice component, it is very easy to learn another. All security management and auditing, event viewing and logging, performance and tuning, and starting and stopping server services across BackOffice can be viewed through a single set of administration tools.
  4. The integrated directory and security model: Provides centralized management of user accounts and passwords. Users benefit from a single user login, both locally and remotely, across Windows NT Server, Microsoft SQL Server, SNA Server, Systems Management Server and, soon, Microsoft Exchange Server.
  5. Licensing Management Tools: New tools have been built into the product to help customers manage and track Server and Client Access Licenses. Customers are required to acknowledge the terms of the licensing agreement during installation. In addition, the licensing tool tracks licenses and usage, and alerts the administrator when compliance issues arise.
  6. Integrated networking: BackOffice compatible server applications are network independent and can leverage the networking already built into Windows NT Server, helping the administrator avoid additional and unnecessary infrastructure setup. Built-in remote dial-in, networking on the desktop and server, and automatic setup of TCP/IP addresses for Windows 95 desktops allows users to access information over any type of network. Gateways are available to connect to a variety of systems including ORACLE� , DB2�, Informix�, Ingres�, Btrieve�, BSAM and IMS files.
  7. Open technology foundation: A BackOffice application can run unmodified on a broad range of hardware, and BackOffice compatible applications automatically exploit the scalability, pre-emptive multi-tasking and reliability of the Windows NT operating system.

System Requirements for BackOffice Server:

* Most customers may not be running all five components of BackOffice, therefore 32 MB will be fine. However, if all five server components are run with an average of 30 users, we recommend 96 MB of memory for the server.


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