Seattle ? Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates wants his managers to “act quickly and decisively” to offer more Internet-based software and services so the computer giant can beat its competition.

Gates compares the push toward such services – ranging from online business software offerings to free Web-based e-mail – to the changes he saw nearly a decade ago. Then, he wrote a now-famous memo, called “The Internet Tidal Wave,” that prompted a massive shift at Microsoft toward Internet-based technology.

“The next sea change is upon us,” Gates wrote in an e-mail to top executives, dated Oct. 30 and obtained late Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Gates also warned the company must be thoughtful in building the right technology.

“This coming ‘services wave’ will be very disruptive,” he wrote. “We have competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge us – still, the opportunity to lead is very clear.”