Initiative to create awareness among Indian companies
Software major Microsoft has tied up with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to generate awareness about software piracy among Indian companies. Microsoft wants firms here to treat software as a capital asset and seeks to ensure licence compliance.
"Indian companies need to realise that adhering to software-related licence norms is an issue of corporate governance. We believe that companies should resort to software asset management tools and practices to ensure that they adhere to the licence norms," said Punit Vanvaria, Manager (Business Development), Microsoft Corporation India.
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Software companies operating in India lost over Rs 1,800 crore in 2001-02 due to rampant piracy, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an association of software companies fighting piracy, said.
According to the BSA estimates, piracy is on the rise in the country. It has gone up to 70 per cent in 2001-02 from 63 per cent in the previous year.
Also, India is one of the few markets that has seen a rise in piracy. In comparison, the rate of piracy in China has come down to 92 per cent in 2001-02 from 94 per cent in 1999-2000.
The Microsoft-CII initiative is part of a move to make companies realise that with the increasing use of information technology in businesses, information technology resources including software assets commonly form a significant segment of a business' capital asset base. According to estimates, well over 50 per cent of the piracy is at the corporate level.
"Using better software asset management practices saves money, helps manage technological change, justifies investments and lets organisations work more efficiently by taking into account data security, software compatibility and resource management issues," Vanvaria said.
Microsoft wants to tackle the issue of piracy from both the corporate as well as from the consumer point of view.
"We know that tackling piracy at the consumer level is important. We are generating awareness among consumers about the need to buy genuine software," he said.
To address the corporate and enterprise segment, Microsoft is taking out a five-city roadshow.
"We are confident that the roadshow with the CII will help create initial awareness among corporates on the need for managing their software investments as well as help define an overall action plan that the companies can follow as a starting point," added Vanvaria.
A key highlight of the Microsoft-CII seminars is interactive sessions with experts from Deloitte & Touch