Microsoft India announces launch of Vista

New Delhi: Microsoft India, today announced the business availability of the Windows Vista operating system, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Exchange Server 2007. The software major's India office said that the launch will "…transform the way people turn information into opportunity and growth." According to Microsoft, the new products provide a platform that will enable businesses to thrive in a world of instant communication, expanding information and constant change.

According to Microsoft the availability of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office to volume licensing customers marks the beginning of "…the most significant product launch in company history and the first simultaneous release of Microsoft's flagship products since the joint launch of Windows 95 and Office 95 more than a decade ago."

Exchange Server 2007 is slated for release to organizations with volume license agreements by the second week in December. Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system will be released to consumers and organizations without volume license agreements on Jan. 30.

The launch follows, what a Microsoft release has described as, an "unprecedented" collaboration between Microsoft and its customers. According to Microsoft, product development was guided through a feedback from customers who volunteered to let Microsoft watch them work in more than 1 billion user sessions. During testing, customers from around the world downloaded more than 5 million beta versions of the three products and provided valuable feedback and suggestions.

According to Neelam Dhawan, managing director, Microsoft India, the company has made extraordinary investments in research and development, and Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system and Exchange Server "…have been tested more thoroughly than any other software products in history."

According to the company, in India alone there was an overwhelming response from both customers and partners with over 350,000 Office 2007 Beta 2 CDs and 500,000 Windows Vista Beta 2CDs accessed so far. Microsoft India has already collected glowing testimonials from its India partners, such as Cognizant, Infosys and TCS, who were part of what the company says was a 640,000-strong worldwide partner ecosystem that helped in the product development.

A Capgemini study commissioned by Microsoft says that early adopters expect dramatic gains in productivity through capabilities that address core business issues in new ways. The study says that companies were looking at driving major revenue increases, improved responsiveness to customers and improved sales team win rates with the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

According to the Capgemini study, early adopters have realized "…cost savings through process workflow automation, easier access to information, improved collaboration with colleagues, and lower costs of compliance."

New capabilities in Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system offer significant advances in graphics and pervasive support for XML and other technologies. Microsoft says that the 2007 Office system will be a powerful platform for developing business applications eliminating barriers between organizations, systems, processes and information.

Together, the three products focus on four critical areas:

• Simplifying how people work together: The new products will revolutionize the way people work in teams and on the go thanks to new capabilities designed for mobile workers and unified messaging.
  
• Finding information and improving business insight: Deep platform integration and availability of new search technologies and powerful, easy-to-use business intelligence tools will help enable employees to find and use information more easily, streamlining the path from idea to execution.
  
• Helping protect and manage content: Advanced content management and document retention tools combined with features to better protect data confidentiality will make content authoring the starting point for automated business processes and regulatory compliance.
  
• Increasing security and helping reduce IT costs: With enhanced security by design and by default, the new versions of Windows, the 2007 release and Exchange Server 2007 deliver breakthrough security features. They streamline deployment and management, helping reduce costs and enabling IT departments to focus on providing new capabilities that deliver strategic advantage.