Businesses could soon have more hosted applications to choose from following a new program from Microsoft being launched initially in Europe this week.

The software maker is partnering with managed hosting companies to set up “incubation centers” that will offer services to software vendors to help them adapt their applications and business models to the software-as-a-service (SAAS) model of online applications.

The first incubation centers are opening in Europe this week, by NTT Europe Online in the U.K. and France, and by 7global in the U.K. Other incubation centers will follow in Asia and North America in the coming months, Microsoft representatives say.

Source: Yahoo