Opening new windows

Microsoft is very upbeat about its new operating system - rivals can go take a run.

Let's face it, India may not have an impatient bunch of Windows users waiting to go out and buy a boxed copy of Vista or spend money in beefing up their Office suite so that they can enjoy the benefits of the new operating system.

But that does not make Microsoft officials in India any less enthusiastic than their counterparts in the rest of the world. Doug Hauger, chief operating officer, Microsoft, insists that, "Indian businesses are quite stirred and can't wait to get their hands on the new operating system and Office 2007 suite."

Where does Hauger's enthusiasm stem from? "From the response that we have registered from the companies that are already running Office 2007," he points.

For instance, Godrej Industries has deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Mani Mulki, vice president (IT) states "Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 provides an instant access environment to our employees with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Web Access and mobile devices. As a result, our employee productivity has improved."

Combined with Office 2007 and the latest version of networking software Exchange, companies are promised that it will dramatically improve the productivity, workflow and data management of corporations.

"Corporate IT managers will be able to clamp down on data theft through iPods and other USB drives," Hauger ensures. "Remote power management can keep the cost of running computers down and new integrated search tools will benefit office workers who end up wasting about 30 per cent of their time trying to locate information," he adds.

Abhay Goyal, general manager (information system), MindTree Consulting, agrees that Exchange Server 2007 lends scaleability by taking advantage of the new 64-bit architecture.

"With Exchange Server 2007, we have overcome the limitations of the 32-bit platform. We won't need to invest in new hardware when we exceed 2000 mailboxes on a server," he explains.

Corporates, who tend to be firmly wedded in the Microsoft universe, are expected to upgrade to Vista and Office 2007 first as corporate IT managers are known to plan their computer replacement cycles around Windows upgrades.

In some ways, Vista's success is inevitable and Microsoft is playing safe by pricing the new products at almost the price range as the existing. Microsoft expects consumers to adopt Vista gradually "as they replace their old computers".

From January 30, 2007 nearly every new Windows computer will come preloaded with Vista, assures Hauger. Lenovo, HP, Dell, HCL, Zenith and others are expected to bundle Vista, post January 30.

However, with almost total market saturation already, all Microsoft will really be doing is gradually replacing sales of its current operating system with a newer improved system.