An article in ZDNet today titled 'BT readies social networking for SMEs' talks about BT's Windows SharePoint Services-based offering called BT Tradespace.

Here is a quote from Ivan Croxford at BT:

"If you take away the technology, what you effectively have is a communications mechanism and a way of getting a personalised and conversational marketing message out to your customers," said Croxford, describing the potential results as "a lot more powerful than static marketing copy or brochureware".

What's interesting from a broadband evolved concept is the use of 'communications' and 'conversational' in this quote.  Communications and conversations are the purview of the telecommunications providers - the people that have historically delivered you your phone line.  SMEs have conducted conversations with customers over the phone for 100 years.  Now they are ready to do it on the web, but in a much more social context.  The fact that the web is now an interactive conversation (see www.5conversations.com for this concept explored more) is a great driver for the role that incumbent telecommunications providers must play in the SaaS market.

On the social networking side, BT plans to launch communities of SMEs for weddings, home repair, gardening and more in a few weeks.  You can see an example (and links to others) here:

www.bttradespace.com/weddings