The secret behind Malta's and Microsoft's success
The educational system, good basic ICT infrastructure and a clear governance structure could very well be the secret behind Malta's success in exploiting ICT, according to a senior Microsoft executive. "Malta has a unique position with regards to its...
The educational system, good basic ICT infrastructure and a clear governance structure could very well be the secret behind Malta's success in exploiting ICT, according to a senior Microsoft executive.
"Malta has a unique position with regards to its potential within the knowledge economy. Key assets of the Maltese society are a very strong educational system, and good basic ICT infrastructure," according to Wilfried Grommen, Microsoft's regional technology officer for central and eastern Europe.
"Often we noticed that smaller countries like Malta - but take other examples like Iceland and Estonia - often follow a smoother path to the development of e-services and this knowledge economy. These countries are also front-runners with regards e-government. Probably their clear governance structure, their investment into new infrastructure and often their direct-short communications are enablers of this quick technology adoption."
The Maltese government and Microsoft have signed a vertical strategic alliance and Microsoft has a strong presence in Malta that is fostering stronger links with the local ICT community as time goes by.
"We feel proud to partner with the Maltese government to help them executing their strategy," said Mr Grommen.
"Microsoft promotes 'interoperability' as a 'design' criterion. This means in a world of ubiquitous connectivity (networking), the connectivity of any system (including PCs, PDA, handhelds, servers etc.), data, information (data within a context, with a meaning) and people (roles, and business processes) becomes crucial," explained Microsoft's executive. "This covers not only the technical features like protocols and application programming interfaces but also a continuous dialogue with the different stakeholders like customers, partners, and even competitors and get involved in scenario based testing. I think OOXML through ECMA, the industry association that issues standards in ICT and consumer electronics, is a good example of this."
Some industry observers claim that interoperability with Microsoft comes very natural for third parties as the software giant dominates over 90 per cent of the computer operating systems software market through its Windows software. Yet the company claims it is the leader in interoperability.
"This claim is based upon a study by Jupiter Research. Its findings show that among 800 IT decision makers, 72 per cent give the Microsoft platform top interoperability marks, with 55 per cent pointing to web services standards as helping achieve it. Microsoft also makes interoperability a strategic programme to be executed in the world of ICT today and tomorrow," insisted Mr Grommen.
Jupiter's data also shows that IT professionals identify integration with applications and databases as their top interoperability challenge, and they cite increasing productivity and lowering costs as the top interoperability benefits.
Microsoft supports business organisations in different ways to successfully implement a business model that is dependent upon the successful roll-out and maintenance of IT systems.
"A core emphasis is our focus on the full lifecycle of software products: development, roll out and maintenance. How can people develop 'better applications'? Here a continuous improvement of our basic development tools is crucial. Far reaching this year is the new Visual Studio and SQL server release. Additionally, Microsoft tries to manage the infrastructure better and reduce cost of operations with such features as integrated communications and security features in the basic desktops and servers products line, with Vista and Vista server, and the virtualisation features. It is also helping organisations to choose in between on site operations, or managed operations, with even data centres run by partners or by Microsoft itself."
A new trend in ICT is "open innovation", which involves the sharing of knowledge (such as human and organisational capital and know-how) and innovation through intellectual property to foster economic growth and meet customers' needs.
"Open innovation is an interesting concept and definitely Microsoft is paying a lot of attention to these new evolutions, although we should clearly distinguish the hype from the daily realities. There is no black and white position to be taken," said Mr Grommen when the issue of Open Source Software (OSS) which shares its source code with developers, in contrast to larger software companies that protect the code, was raised.
"A lot of so-called OSS products are designed by well organised development labs and are released under very strict "support" rules, and alternatively Microsoft has a lot of Open Source projects underway, such as, where we fully contribute and join a community based development model. Microsoft believes strongly in the software ecosystem as a base for a prosperous industrial ICT activity within the countries, but also believes that the ultimate base relies in the recognition of the intellectual property rights of inventions. These "rights" however can be shared and made accessible."
More examples of Microsoft engagement in open innovation include its recent IP strategy where the company releases IP and shares its IP with several major players through cross licensing agreements, where it helps start-ups through its IP ventures program. Some examples are the licensing agreements with Novell and Sun, and the collaborative research programmes with major institutes also in Europe.
In the end it's the end user at their office or at home which remains an important factor in Microsoft's strategy, as the company puts an emphasis on the product satisfaction feedback loop.
"Customer feedback is one of the crucial design criteria for our product enhancements and product design," remarked the senior Microsoft executive. "One of the most striking examples is our Dr Watson feature; a technology originally known as Watson was created early on to help identify the source of software crashes and their severity. Watson in Windows is now known as 'Windows error reporting'."
"Malta has a unique position with regards to its potential within the knowledge economy. Key assets of the Maltese society are a very strong educational system, and good basic ICT infrastructure," according to Wilfried Grommen, Microsoft's regional technology officer for central and eastern Europe.
"Often we noticed that smaller countries like Malta - but take other examples like Iceland and Estonia - often follow a smoother path to the development of e-services and this knowledge economy. These countries are also front-runners with regards e-government. Probably their clear governance structure, their investment into new infrastructure and often their direct-short communications are enablers of this quick technology adoption."
The Maltese government and Microsoft have signed a vertical strategic alliance and Microsoft has a strong presence in Malta that is fostering stronger links with the local ICT community as time goes by.
"We feel proud to partner with the Maltese government to help them executing their strategy," said Mr Grommen.
"Microsoft promotes 'interoperability' as a 'design' criterion. This means in a world of ubiquitous connectivity (networking), the connectivity of any system (including PCs, PDA, handhelds, servers etc.), data, information (data within a context, with a meaning) and people (roles, and business processes) becomes crucial," explained Microsoft's executive. "This covers not only the technical features like protocols and application programming interfaces but also a continuous dialogue with the different stakeholders like customers, partners, and even competitors and get involved in scenario based testing. I think OOXML through ECMA, the industry association that issues standards in ICT and consumer electronics, is a good example of this."
Some industry observers claim that interoperability with Microsoft comes very natural for third parties as the software giant dominates over 90 per cent of the computer operating systems software market through its Windows software. Yet the company claims it is the leader in interoperability.
"This claim is based upon a study by Jupiter Research. Its findings show that among 800 IT decision makers, 72 per cent give the Microsoft platform top interoperability marks, with 55 per cent pointing to web services standards as helping achieve it. Microsoft also makes interoperability a strategic programme to be executed in the world of ICT today and tomorrow," insisted Mr Grommen.
Jupiter's data also shows that IT professionals identify integration with applications and databases as their top interoperability challenge, and they cite increasing productivity and lowering costs as the top interoperability benefits.
Microsoft supports business organisations in different ways to successfully implement a business model that is dependent upon the successful roll-out and maintenance of IT systems.
"A core emphasis is our focus on the full lifecycle of software products: development, roll out and maintenance. How can people develop 'better applications'? Here a continuous improvement of our basic development tools is crucial. Far reaching this year is the new Visual Studio and SQL server release. Additionally, Microsoft tries to manage the infrastructure better and reduce cost of operations with such features as integrated communications and security features in the basic desktops and servers products line, with Vista and Vista server, and the virtualisation features. It is also helping organisations to choose in between on site operations, or managed operations, with even data centres run by partners or by Microsoft itself."
A new trend in ICT is "open innovation", which involves the sharing of knowledge (such as human and organisational capital and know-how) and innovation through intellectual property to foster economic growth and meet customers' needs.
"Open innovation is an interesting concept and definitely Microsoft is paying a lot of attention to these new evolutions, although we should clearly distinguish the hype from the daily realities. There is no black and white position to be taken," said Mr Grommen when the issue of Open Source Software (OSS) which shares its source code with developers, in contrast to larger software companies that protect the code, was raised.
"A lot of so-called OSS products are designed by well organised development labs and are released under very strict "support" rules, and alternatively Microsoft has a lot of Open Source projects underway, such as, where we fully contribute and join a community based development model. Microsoft believes strongly in the software ecosystem as a base for a prosperous industrial ICT activity within the countries, but also believes that the ultimate base relies in the recognition of the intellectual property rights of inventions. These "rights" however can be shared and made accessible."
More examples of Microsoft engagement in open innovation include its recent IP strategy where the company releases IP and shares its IP with several major players through cross licensing agreements, where it helps start-ups through its IP ventures program. Some examples are the licensing agreements with Novell and Sun, and the collaborative research programmes with major institutes also in Europe.
In the end it's the end user at their office or at home which remains an important factor in Microsoft's strategy, as the company puts an emphasis on the product satisfaction feedback loop.
"Customer feedback is one of the crucial design criteria for our product enhancements and product design," remarked the senior Microsoft executive. "One of the most striking examples is our Dr Watson feature; a technology originally known as Watson was created early on to help identify the source of software crashes and their severity. Watson in Windows is now known as 'Windows error reporting'."