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Nasdaq-listed Microsoft Corp. will increase its market share in the
Philippines by tapping the small- and medium-enterprises and the
business process outsourcing companies here, Nicky Eala, the
company’s server business group lead, told The Manila Times in an
interview Thursday.
Eala said Microsoft acknowledges the
significance of the fast growing economies in the Asia-Pacific
Region, particularly of the Philippines.
“Microsoft wants to be part of the solution in
terms of providing the service and features that every enterprise
needs,” he said.
The company unveiled 2008 series infrastructure
and application platform products that include Windows Server,
Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft SQL.
According to Intenational Data Corp., there are
about 12,000 to 13, 000 servers that are being shipped into the
country every year, and Microsoft accounts for the 75 percent of the
total installed server all over the Philippines.
“[We] intend to increase [our] market share by
at least double digit,” Eala said.
He said that the company has prepared small
business server, or what it calls “value meal” product, for SMEs.
This product comes equipped with database and electronic mail
systems to serve about 75 users.
“This is perfect for businesses that do not
have budget for [their] own information technology division,” Eala
said.
“Bigger BPO companies want to have a very
reliable server, that is why [we] came up with the “clustering
solution” or a back-up server that will continue any transaction
[once] the other one breaks down,” he said.
Windows software cost around $800 per unit,
while the enterprise edition stood at $1, 300 per unit.
Bill Hilf, Microsoft’s general manager for
platform strategy, said that these new products are designed to
dramatically reduce the time and expense that companies have to
spend for the maintenance of their IT needs.
“[Our] study revealed that firms spend about
80 percent of their time and money for the maintenance of [their] IT
products, and these new technologies are expected to reverse it to
20 percent,” Hilf said.
-- Katrina Mennen A. Valdez
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