Lanka has unlimited potential in software - GM Microsoft

by Gamini Warushamana

General Manager, Microsoft (Developer and Platform Evangelism) Dilip Mistry was the chief guest at the Tech -Ed 2006 held in Colombo last week. Mistry shared his views about the software industry of the world today and the potential Sri Lanka has in the industry in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer.

Q: What does Microsoft (MS) expect from events such as Tech-Ed 2006 organised in developing countries such as Sri Lanka? Are you marketing your products here or doing something more?

A: Since most of the developers and IT professionals are coming to this event Tech-Ed 2006,basically three things will happen. Firstly, they will be confident about using our (MS) technology to solve business issues.

Secondly, through this conference they will be able to directly communicate with Microsoft and hence Microsoft, people in Sri Lanka and abroad will communicate one to one.

Thirdly, they will learn to build the community. Today technology is such that there are so many different technologies which are hard to keep up to date. So people can go on line for information. But actually the best form of support is within the community. These are what we expect from the MS Tech ED 2006.

As far as Sri Lanka's MS operations are concerned every local office is closely engaged with the local IT industry. Do we want to make it easy for people to use our product and services? Yes. But our responsibility here is beyond a commercial entity.

There are three things we are very focused on. One is to make sure that the customer sees the value of our products and the value of our software. Secondly we see unlimited potential here. We believe many groups, schools, students, underprivileged people and charities can take advantage of technology.

Thirdly, the local impact. We try to ensure that we have local companies here. Since the inception of Microsoft in Sri Lanka we have helped companies in Sri Lanka with Microsoft technologies. Microsoft here is more than a software vendor. We see it as a co-partner of the overall society here.

Q: What is the general shape of the software business in the world today? and what is MS's position? What is the small player's contribution and competitiveness?

A: The Software industry is a part of the bigger IT industry. If you look at the software industry it is a US$120 billion market today. There are MS, IBM and hundreds of other types of software providers in the market. We are the leader in the market.

What is interesting is that the software and traditional media market is coming closer together. The traditional media did not look at software but today the reality is that more and more content is delivered and distributed and presented in digital format.

That means the traditional media market is getting more and more into software. Microsoft is a player in the media market as well. We give a big push to delivery software. We deliver richer experiences. Today software is more than a static window and the button you click. It is a widely enriching experience.

In the software industry too the user experience is becoming increasingly important now. We have many tools such as MS expression designer. Our new office product is very popular among many people.

In our new office system we have made a major improvement to the interface and we hope to introduce more functionalities that can be used in the future. The user interface, is arguably optimised for different types of users. Now with our rebuild interface users can access a wonderful technology.

Q: What is Sri Lanka's potential in the IT industry?

A: Sri Lanka has a huge potential. Sri Lankans can contribute more. Many people here are skilful and you need to think positively and build the IT industry. According to my worldwide experience the fundamental thing that helps to develop the software industry is well protected intellectual property rights.

The Software industry thrives on this. In order to invest and get some return, and to build the industry and build the eco system we need to protect intellectual property.

I understand the risk of the copyright law here. We need to make sure that it is enforced. We, the IT community should become the ambassadors for these intellectual property rights.

Q: What are the issues we have to address as priority to boost the industry?

A: One is the Intellectual property rights law. Secondly, the skills. You should ensure the technically qualified graduates have the required skills.

Thirdly, you should make sure the technology is available to a broader set of people. Sri Lanka is similar to all other emerging markets. Only a very small percentage of the overall population has access to this technology.

We need to enable a broader set of people to benefit and improve their skills and to ensure the access to the technology. The bottomline is recognising that people outside the IT stream may not use computers intuitively.

Microsoft Windows Vista today has Sinhala support where a person in a remote village who has never seen a computer before now can recognise Sinhala, talk, and read sinhala to interact with MS software and improve his quality of life.

Q: Don't you think that the high price of software is a barrier to this digital divide in this part of the world?

A: A section of the community knows the value of purchasing software as many of their colleagues in the rest of the world. When we walk around Colombo we see plush offices, airconditioned US styled offices, businesses similar to US businesses and I feel they all can afford the price.

They should pay the commercial rates as they are competing in the global economy. But the other extreme, I believe that affordability is something we need to keep an eye on. We do have schemes to support underprivileged groups.

I am less concerned about affordability because I am confident about the fact that MS has various programs and initiatives. I know that certain rural villages in Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have PCs running Windows and people getting the benefits from that.

The other factor is that people in rural areas have mobile phones . If they can afford mobiles why can't they afford the price of software? However, we know some of them are subscribed packages. We are also looking at sub-ways to provide software and increase the affordability of the underprivileged and marginalised people.

Q: Is the Open Source Software a challenge to the industry?

A: Open source software is another model. Vendors such as Microsoft and other players in the industry, do commercialise software model.

We develop software and get some return on our investments. We have thousands of developers working to make sure that our software is secure and accountable so that it provides full indemnification in terms of software in causes and issues. Open Source software is more a community driven approach.

But the reality is that there are no questions on indemnification. It is developed by different parties in different places.

But the question is who is responsible if there is an issue in the software. Community aspects of open source software development are interesting.

The community provides inputs and feedback. But it is very clear. As far as MS software is concerned we are fully responsible for our software.

We are very strict about privacy and security issues. It was a big issue in trustworthy competition. We are confident that we have very secure products. Windows Vista is the most secure product. We respect privacy of the people in terms of the information we collect, he said.

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