Microsoft projects 25% growth for 2002

Microsoft Philippines projects a growth of 25 percent for fiscal year 2002. The encouraging figures were attributed to the strong performance of its server products such as Windows, SQL Server, and Exchange Server, and desktop products such as Office and Windows, in the local market during the first half of the fiscal year.

"We are indeed pleased with our results this half, especially when we consider the setbacks businesses suffered these past several months — the tough market atmosphere after Sept. 11, the remarkable slowdown in enterprise business, the minimal growth of the PC at three percent and server hardware shipment at negative growth," said Richard Francis, Microsoft Philippines managing director.

Earlier, Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington announced record revenue of $7.74 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2001, owing to the launching of Windows XP, the latest version of the world‘s most popular operating system. Since the launch of Windows XP on Oct. 25, over 17 million copies have been sold by computer manufacturers on new personal computers and by retailers, making it the most successful Windows launch ever.

Corporate and enterprise partnerships between Microsoft and local businesses flourished during the first half of the fiscal year. Among the most notable were the enterprise agreements signed with Asian Development Bank and San Miguel Corp. Meralco, the firs Asian company to sing an enterprise agreement with Microsoft, renewed its contract this fiscal year. Other services rendered include datawarehousing solutions for AstraZeneca, Unilever, Sunlife and Pfizer, desktop applications for Philippine Airlines and Marsman, and the bill retrieval platform for PLDT. The World Health Organization and Bayantrade both standardized on Exchange 2000. Bayantrade also chose to use Biztalk Server for ERP integration.

"The down scaling of the IT operations to smaller servers versus getting the old ubiquitous servers was a great help for us. Enterprise wanted practical solutions for their operations rather than hype," Francis adds.

Initiatives for the second half of fiscal year 2002 include the launch of Visual Studio.NET, the complete enterprise development tool suite for developers in support of the.NET initiative, which will happen locally on March 13 and 14.

In terms of contributing to the growth and development of the Philippines, Microsoft has announced that it will continue to hold partnership with the government through the SONA portal of the Office of the President. The Bureau of Internal Revenue, National Statistics Office and Land Transportation Office are also implementing solutions based on Microsoft platform.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the nationwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services deigned to empower people.