The Hindu Business Line : `More exciting times ahead'

For Microsoft Corporation, IT is no longer just about software. The company's focus now extends to cover its development platforms, software and new features and services that can be built on them by its partners.

They have all been centralised into one connecting development theme.

The developer team is working with independent developers, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators (SI), helping them to transition to new technology solutions. And the launch of the Windows Vista operating system and 2007 Office System suites heralds a range of opportunities to create dynamic customer connections and build more productive applications, even for small devices.

Tarun Gulati, General Manager, Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft India, tells eWorld how these communities are making a difference, engaging in projects for Indian Railways, India Posts and for the textile industry in Tirupur.

MS Expressions

"Microsoft is also working towards release of MS Expressions, a new design suite, within three months.

The development mandate in India continues to grow as we add new products such as Xbox 360 and Zune media player," says Gulati.

"The interesting aspect is we are able to provide a development environment that integrates all. As we work towards Windows Live, the emphasis will be on how to collaborate.

The accent therein will be on providing rich experience," he says.

In India, the company is working closely with the Government sector, consumers and significantly a large section of users in the small and medium enterprises. One of the ongoing initiatives is to create local language interface that helps bring more people into the MS fold. As part of this initiative, MS released Windows Starter Edition in 14 languages and expects to repeat this with Windows Vista by early 2008.

On collaboration with companies such as Skelta and Polaris, Gulati says, "through such engagements, we are able to broaden the scope of development of new features and offerings. For instance, Stump Vision is a case in point wherein Windows Vista and new Office features have been extensively used."

Targeting textile sector

In the case of Tirupur, many households are into the textile business. The exporters of garments secure an order and then sub-contract it to other vendors. The sub-contractors take around 60 days to finish their work.

The cloth travels nearly 10-15 km within Tirupur. During the course of executing the order, the only way an exporter can find out the status of work is through physical verification.

The Microsoft solution provides supply chain and sub-contracting visibility that is being built through partners. One of the applications is called Sub Contracting Manager, which provides visibility across the end-to-end value chain of the cluster, says Gulati.

Microsoft is also building applications along with vendors for the garment export cluster.

This is based on the .NET 2.0 framework and uses Rich Client and Web services capabilities to provide value chain information to exporters in Tirupur, he says.

For cricket buffs, and others

According to Dinesh Kumble, Director of Stump Vision, StumpVision Scorite is a cricket scoring software and the StumpVision Matchcast solution is targeted at cricket fans interested in watching live videos with real time analysis of a specific cricket match in progress.

These solutions were developed on the Microsoft platform to build necessary visual interface.

Another instance of usage is Itasveer.com. According to Ankit Khanna, Co-Founder of Itasveer.com, this helps online order of digital images.

And in the case of Polaris, the Windows platforms have been extensively used in Polaris Intellect Bancassurance solution. This product serves as a bridge between a bank and insurance company and facilitates cross selling of products and helps generate new streams of business.

SMEs in spotlight

Referring to project Vikas that seeks to bring about IT-enablement for small and medium enterprises, Gulati says the objective is to make these enterprises globally competitive. This was conceptualised during Bill Gates' visit to India, with an investment of $15 million, to enhance the competitiveness of India's manufacturing sector.

Taken up in partnership with the National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC), Government of India, this initiative seeks to address the challenges faced by SMEs and aims to partner with independent software vendors and systems integrators contributing to the ecosystem.

These cover three clusters of Tirupur for textiles, Pune for auto components and Ahmedabad for pharmaceuticals.

Given the advantage of serving such clusters, efforts are on to identify if the software as a service (SaaS) model could be offered to them.

Software on wheels

Development work is also happening in the Government sector through local partners. For instance, in the case of Indian Railways, Microsoft and its partners have helped design CRIS or Centre for Railways Information System, which helps develop and print high-quality train position charts, something not possible earlier. This helps to manage traffic better.

According to Gulati, the nature and scope of engagement with ISVs and SIs is growing, and with new features such as MS Expression, and Windows Live Crowd, and Rich Client. "We are in for a lot more exciting times," he says.

vrishi@thehindu.co.in