Author: Microsoft Stories

Amidst increasing adoption of the cloud, The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners India (IAMCP), West Chapter recently organized an introductory seminar at Pune on June 20 2016, pertaining to opportunities in Microsoft’s business. Suketu Shah, Director, Genie InfoTech and a channel partner for Microsoft said, “Whatever business strategies we have we would like to partner with other players from India, from US and other regions. So, we are doing some unique business practices where we are migrating data to the cloud using Azure, to showcase these practices to our partners and together we can bring in more business to Microsoft. From a reseller to a CSP that is the journey that we have seen.”

Government has provisionally empaneled 11 firms including Microsoft, IBM, state-owned BSNL and Tata Communications to provide cloud services, Parliament was informed today. PP Chaudhary, Minister of State for IT and Law, said that the selected firms are Microsoft Corporation (India), Hewlett Packard Enterprise India, IBM India, Tata Communications Limited, BSNL, ESDS Software Solutions, Net Magic IT Services, Sify Technologies, CtrlS Data Centers, Cyfuture India and Web Works India.

The Telangana government said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Microsoft India to help with various initiatives under its Digital Telangana program. “Over the past year, we have experimented with cloud, mobile and machine learning based solutions for better citizen connect as well as to help students, farmers and patients in India. We are delighted to bring many of those learnings to Telangana and explore new use for these world-class technologies. We believe technology should empower every Indian, and today’s MoU will take us further in that journey,” said Anil Bhansali, managing director, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd.

In a recent interview, Xbox head Phil Spencer confirmed that Xbox One Scorpio will be a more expensive machine than the Xbox One S, and also that Microsoft is going to load it with every kind of technology that they can. Spencer said, “And we make sure that we’re building that console and putting the features into that console to make it as enjoyable and desirable to as many people as possible at the price. Scorpio will be a premium console, it will cost more than the S, obviously, that’s how we’re building it.”

With a November 15, 2001 launch in North America, and three to four months later internationally, the Xbox represented Microsoft’s confident debut in console gaming. Five of the best games for the original Xbox, showing how Xbox challenged in multiple key genres: shooters, racers, and role-playing games are – Project Gotham Racing (2001), Panzer Dragoon Orta (2002), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), Halo 2 (2004), and Fable (2004).

It may seem like a long way away, but Microsoft’s Office 2007 products are hitting their end of support dates in 2017. For larger enterprise shops which, in the past, have been able to extend support a bit longer with a custom contract as part of their Premier status, there’s a new wrinkle next year. Microsoft will not be offering this custom support extension as in the past.

Small businesses that need a tool to track their relationships with customers now have a new weapon from Microsoft in their arsenal. The company launched Outlook Customer Manager, a lightweight customer relationship management (CRM) system. It allows users to track their customers, manage deals in progress, track tasks and more, all from their Outlook email client. The launch builds on Microsoft’s ongoing push to capture the small business market.

With Black Friday on November 24, we’re seeing a host of deals across US-based retailers. Microsoft is no exception. The company’s US Xbox site is teasing its yearly digital discounts claiming that the “countdown to Black Friday starts now.” If users have Xbox Live Gold, you will be able to access the sale from November 18 to November 21. Usually the deals available on the India Xbox Marketplace are in sync with what the US store has. This was the case last year. However Microsoft India has not announced anything just yet.

TalentSprint in collaboration with its partners has announced that within the next three years it will deploy its exclusive WISE program (Women in Software Engineering) to skill and empower 1000 young women graduates who can aspire for advanced technical roles in the global IT sector. Sharing her experiences, Charu Srinivasan, Partner Group Engineering Manager, Cloud & Enterprise, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd. said, “WISE believes that we can inspire women to pursue careers in computing by exposing them to real life role models and providing experiential learning opportunities. Our Microsoft mentors have embraced the WISE program because we want to help young women software engineers to achieve any goal they set for themselves. Our program was launched with great enthusiasm and this has grown stronger with each batch.”