Microsoft steps up mission-critical investments in Asia
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft will step up its investments in AsiaÂ over the next two years as part of a bid to strengthen its relationship with partners and corporate customers in the area of mission-critical technologies. "Over the next two years, we're going to invest about $14 million in resources and facilities," said Chris Sharp, Microsoft's Asia-Pacific general manager of server and tools products, during a phone interview. As part of these investments, Microsoft will assign 100 technical specialists to work with customers and ISVs (independent software vendors) on mission-critical software products, including Windows 2003 Server and SQL Server 2005. The company also plans to open two technology incubation centers in Seoul and Bangalore, India. "These technology centers are there to showcase the capabilities of server technology and help people port their applications to mission-critical hardware," Sharp said. Microsoft's planned investments in Asia will boost the effectiveness of the company's enterprise sales team in Asia, said Dane Anderson, head of research at Springboard Research. From a technology standpoint, Microsoft's products are competitive with offerings from rival vendors but the sales cycle for enterprise products is longer and more involved than for sales of desktop operating systems or application suites, Anderson said. "These investments help to address that," he said. Customers that have an established relationship also expect to benefit from the added investment and new technology centers. "We think it's pretty good for us,"James Kang, the chief information officer of NTUC Income Insurance Cooperative, noting that the incubation centers are available to help his company run simulations and test new applications.
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PRAGUE -- Following the European Commission's call Wednesday for increased technology research, Microsoft launched an initiative to invest in scientific research centers in Europe.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft and Satyam Computer Services opened two business intelligence software testing and development centers in Asia on Tuesday, hoping to usher in a new era for Chinese financial applications. The centers, one in Shanghai and the other in Singapore, are taking direct aim at banks and other financial services business with growing customer demand for multiple services. Researchers from Satyam will use real-life scenarios and data to test and localize financial software that's already available on global markets, as well as develop new applications specifically for the Chinese market. "The opportunity [in China] is staggering. The demand for more sophisticated financial products is expanding," said Ken Wye Saw, vice president of sales and marketing for Microsoft in the Asia Pacific region, in a telephone interview. The companies plan to use iDecisions business intelligence software from Satyam, of Hyderabad, India, to build the market for Chinese financial services applications. The software is designed to sift through an organizationâs information and transform data into useful information, tools and ideas for better services. For example, a bank could use iDecisions in its existing database to sift through a customer's past credit history, job information, choices on banking and stock picks, and more, to understand their appetite for risk and more intuitively design a personalized long-term investment plan. The deal between Microsoft and Satyam also highlights their growing collaboration on China. Last year, the two companiesÂ agreed to work togetherÂ in the enterprise solutions market in the Greater China region, which includes China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as loosely associating Singapore. The iDecisions software at the heart of the current Microsoft and Satyam partnership runs on Microsoft server software, including Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Satyam gained iDecisions through its purchase of Singaporean software maker Knowledge DynamicsÂ last year. Satyam is one of India'sÂ biggest software developers. The company will take charge of day-to-day operations at the centers, while Microsoft will make available its engineers when necessary, Saw said. The companies would not disclose the amount of their investment.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Microsoft announced a major support upgrade, clearer road maps, and a new financing option for its Dynamics range of business applications on Wednesday.
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New Microsoft program smoothes transition from Chinese to English.
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Microsoft is to open a research lab in India early next year, further extending the international reach of what has become one of the technology industry&#39;s biggest research bases.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. will invest in Chinese electronics maker Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. Ltd. as part of a project to link televisions and consumer entertainment devices with the Internet. Microsoft China agreed to buy 15 million newly issued Changhong shares at a price of 6.27 renminbi per share, according to a Changhong filing (in Chinese) with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Microsoft's planned stake in the company is worth 94.1 million renminbi (US$12.3 million). Changhong's announcement follows an agreement between the two companies, signed Friday, to cooperate on a project called Media Galaxy. The goal is to develop, manufacture, and sell televisions, computers and digital entertainment products that connect to the Internet, Changhong said. It did not offer further details. Terms of the investment deal require Microsoft to hold on to its Changhong shares for at least three years.
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Microsoft Corp.  said it expects  sales of its Windows Mobile program in the Asia-Pacific region  to jump by over 75 percent in the business year to June, helped  by closer ties with wireless carriers and device makers.
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The Microsoft chairman discusses where the XO laptop fits on his radar screen (not too high), as well as other efforts to bring low-cost computing to emerging markets.
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[Business India]: Hyderabad, Nov. 15 : Microsoft Corp. will hire several hundred new staff at its new Indian campus in the next year, its chief executive said today-- a move aimed at strengthening its presence in Asia&#39;s fourth-biggest economy.
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BANGALORE, INDIA - MicrosoftÂ is setting up a research lab in Bangalore, India, that will focus on areas including computing technologies for emerging markets, according to a company executive.
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Deployment will boost Verizon's advanced data and enterprise services in Asia-Pacific.
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The software company's investments are showing some promise.
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Microsoft has expanded its initiative to provide a low-cost distribution of Windows in Asia. Although the program was originally directed exclusively toward social welfare programs in Thailand and Indonesia, it will now be expanded to Malaysia. The software will be available in all three countries by October.
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Over the next six months, the software maker plans to establish security research and response teams in Europe and Asia.
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Microsoft today dramatically increased its presence in India, opening a major new campus on the subcontinent and unveiling a key joint venture in the world&#39;s leading region for outsourcing.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft wants to play a bigger role in China's living rooms, and the company is willing to spend millions of dollars to get there. The company's latest home-entertainment moves in China include aÂ planned $12.3 million investmentÂ in Sichuan Changhong Electric. The deal, announced earlier this week, gives Microsoft a small stake in one of China's largest TV makers, which in turn agreed to develop TVs and other products able to link with the Internet. "Microsoft and Changhong have partnered in exploring the use of digital media technologies to benefit the consumers for a better in-home networked digital entertainment experience," Microsoft said Friday in an e-mail statement. Its investment is intended to build goodwill, rather than bring a specific product to market. "The investment is more like a gesture of saying, 'We're friends strategically,'" said Jason Yin, managing director at In-Stat China. Critics have compared the Changhong deal to Venus, an ill-fated project launched in 1999 to develop Windows CE set-top boxes for the Chinese market. But that's not an accurate comparison. "It's very different," Yin said. Unlike Venus, Microsoft isn't trying to bring a new piece of hardware to market. Current versions of Windows are capable of connecting a TV with the Internet, and these types of systems are already available in China. Changhong's own M10 Living Room Entertainment Center is an example. Based on Windows XP Media Center Edition, the M10 is designed to connect with a television and comes with a remote control and wireless keyboard, allowing users to access music, videos and the Internet from a couch instead of a desk. Changhong also offers other consumer products that connect to the Internet. For instance, it sells a 32-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) television with a camera that can be used for Internet video calls. And the company has worked with China Telecommunications Group Corp., one of the country's two major fixed-line operators, to sell IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) set-top boxes. Microsoft hopes closer ties with Changhong will strengthen the channel through which its home-entertainment software reaches Chinese consumers. Those products include Windows Media Center and Mediaroom, the company's IPTV software. "Microsoft now has a better understanding of the value of local partners in penetrating China's market," Yin said, citing the example of Xiamen Amoi Electronics, which develops and sells Windows Mobile smart phones in China. Whether Microsoft's small investment in Changhong yields the desired result remains to be seen. In past years, the company used investments to build closer relationships with Chinese partners to varying degrees of success. "The investment doesn't always mean they get what they want," Yin said. The Changhong investment is just one part of Microsoft's home-entertainment push in China, and the company continues to seek out new deals and alliances. On Thursday, Microsoft signed an agreement with Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the country's second-largest media company. Under the terms of that deal, SMG will use Microsoft products across its new-media division, which includes Internet video, IPTV and mobile television. The partners hope their combined strengths in software and content will convince more companies to join them. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Â