Nearly 57 Percent of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Adopt Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 as Browsing Software of Choice
REDMOND, Wash., March 9, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that research done by MSI International East Inc. reveals that nearly 57 percent of small and medium-sized companies with a standardized Web browser have selected Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 as their browsing software of choice. These businesses cite ease of use, integration and standards support as the top reasons for choosing the Microsoft Internet client software.
The small and medium-sized businesses adopting Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 span key industries that include manufacturing, government, insurance, financial services, consulting, education and health care. They include companies such as Applied Visions Inc.; Banks Glass Company; C.L.A.S. Inc.; Computer Evolution Inc.; Cosho, Humphrey, Greener & Welsh P.A.; Diamond Scientific; Federal Emergency Management Agency, Region 10; George M. Leader Family Corp., Hastings Professional Computers; iMC2; MasterGraphics Inc.; MSI Consulting Group; National Center for Manufacturing Sciences; QDM Company Inc.; Rachor Purman & Tucker CPAs PLC; State of California Franchise Tax Board; Telcom Network Systems; Total Financial & Insurance Services Inc; Wyle Electronics; and Yokahama Tire Corp.
“The adoption of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 by these organizations demonstrates the superior value Internet Explorer has for small and medium-sized businesses,” said Yusuf Mehdi, director of marketing in the applications and Internet client group at Microsoft. “Leading companies everywhere are finding that Internet Explorer offers customers a robust development environment, as well as a cost-effective Internet and intranet solution.”
The MSI International East study showed that 57 percent of medium-sized business organizations and 56 percent of small-business organizations with a standardized Web browser have selected Internet Explorer as their browsing software of choice. The study was conducted in October through December through telephone interviews of 547 information technology (IT) managers and other business decision-makers. MSI International East, a full-service marketing research firm based in King of Prussia, Pa., defined small-business organizations as those with up to 49 desktops and medium-sized organizations as those with between 50 and 999 desktops.
Companies Choose Microsoft Internet Explorer for Ease of Use, Innovative Features
Companies say they have chosen Internet Explorer 4.0 for its ease of use, standards-based development platform and innovative features such as the Active Desktop
™
interface and Outlook
™
Express:
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Yokohama Tire Corp., with headquarters in Fullerton, Calif., is loading Internet Explorer 4.0 on the company’s desktop and laptop computers. The company’s first implementation of a browser, Yokohama chose Internet Explorer 4.0 over competing solutions because of its powerful browsing capabilities, Outlook Express e-mail feature and close integration with the Windows® 95 operating system. Yokohama plans to use Internet Explorer for research, to access freight information and perform online credit analysis over the Web, all directly from the desktop. Also, employees will have access to the intranet sites at Fullerton and the manufacturing facility in Salem.
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Applied Visions Inc., a software company in Northport, N.Y., that provides customized solutions for businesses, deployed Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 because of the product’s support for the Visual Basic® development system, ActiveX® Controls and for standards-based Dynamic HTML, the emerging standard for building Web-based applications. These features have enabled Applied Vision’s intranet team to develop more advanced applications for both the company intranet and for its outside clients, in turn saving the company money and time.
For example, Applied Visions took Bugzapper, its in-house quality assurance and defect tracking software based on Visual Basic, and Web-enabled it as an ActiveX Control within a week. This gave the company a secure extranet solution that allows its customers as much access to ongoing software as its in-house developers. “Without standardizing on Internet Explorer 4.0 for our company, our in-house and customer-directed development efforts wouldn’t be nearly as harmonious,” said Jon Steiner, intranet developer at Applied Visions. “It was relatively easy to implement Bugzapper with Internet Explorer 4.0 and Internet Information Server (IIS), and our customers couldn’t be happier. Internet Explorer 4.0 saves time coordinating resources, and our customers have truly become our partners in the development process.”
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Diamond Scientific, a diamond slurry manufacturer in Houston, switched to Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 from Netscape Navigator because of the product’s close integration with the operating system and its Outlook Express e-mail feature, which employees find easier to use than competing e-mail packages. David Neuland, the company’s vice president of engineering, said that Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0’s seamless integration between the Web and the desktop has made it easier for users to use their computers by creating a uniform way to navigate the Internet and their hard drives. “Research is key to our success,” Neuland said. “We use Internet Explorer 4.0 to access chemical information sources on the Web that our critical to our work, and use Outlook Express to communicate about our ongoing tests with the research teams at our customers and suppliers. The simplicity has been invaluable; we can concentrate on research, not how to run a browser.”
Companies Say Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Reduces Costs, Increases Productivity
Not only are customers developing innovative solutions with Internet Explorer, but companies are finding that Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 reduces training costs and increases employee productivity by providing employees with quick access to company information on the intranet and important business information on the Web.
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QDM Company Inc., a distributor and wholesaler of tanning equipment in San Francisco, recently decided to standardize on Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 because the company recently changed over to the Windows NT® and Windows 95 operating systems and wanted a single vendor solution. The company, which has deployed Internet Explorer, has found that Internet Explorer 4.0 is so simple that even novice users do not require any specialized training. “It’s fast, easy to use and easy to install and maintain, which has definitely saved us training and deployment costs,” said Joe Smith, department manager at QDM.
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Cosho, Humphrey, Greener & Welsh, a law firm in Boise, Idaho, plans to roll out Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 over the next several weeks because of the browsing software’s integration with the Windows operating system and other applications as
well as its ease of administration when used with the Internet Explorer Administration Kit, which enables IS managers to customize, deploy and maintain Internet Explorer from a central location. Samuel Barker, the law firm’s systems administrator, said the company plans to use Internet Explorer to conduct Internet research on law cases and to access research resources residing on the company’s intranet. “Internet Explorer 4.0’s intuitive user interface and integration with the Windows operating system reduce the support needs of new and inexperienced users and allow an administrator to truly fine-tune users’ desktops to suit their specific needs,” Barker said.
Pricing and Availability
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 can be downloaded free from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ (connect-time charges may apply). The Internet Explorer Administration Kit 4.01a is also available from the Microsoft Web site at http://ieak.microsoft
.com/. Customers are also encouraged to visit the Microsoft Small Business Resource Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/smallbiz/ .
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, Active Desktop, Outlook, Windows, Visual Basic, ActiveX and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. For information on the growing use of Microsoft Internet Explorer in corporate environments, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/ie/corp/ .
