Marubeni Corp. and Microsoft Co. said Tuesday they will launch a business to enable firms to access and use Marubeni's server center as their own local area networks.

Under the V-Service operations to be launched Monday, corporate subscribers to the service will have access to LANs providing a wide range of functions, including e-mail utilities, document file management, and corporate schedule programs, the two firms said.

Microsoft Co. is the Japanese arm of Microsoft Corp. of the United States.

The service, known in the United States as shared hosting, frees subscribers from having to buy their own servers, build their own LANs and hire computer engineers, they said.

The V-Service will provide subscribers equipped with broadband access lines with a range of computing services from the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server and Microsoft Outlook software packages, they said.

Once a company enters into a contract with Marubeni, employees will be given a password to access Marubeni's server center in Hachioji, west of Tokyo, they said.

Since Microsoft continuously updates a range of applications at the server center, subscribers will always be able to use the latest software, the firms added.