MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGIES OPTIMIZE IT-SECTOR OF ARMENIA

Official opening of the Office of Armenian representation of the world-known MICROSOFT Corporation was held in May, 2006. Though not so much time has passed ever since, however, the Corporation has definitely succeeded in Armenia within this half a year. In particular, it has completed the works for localization of Windows XP, carried out by Bi Line Company, enlarged the circle of partners, enabled the country's IHE to enrich the information bases, developed a number of programs. ArmInfo correspondent asked its Chief, Grigor Barseghyan, to give particulars of activity of the Armenian Office.

It is known that the educational programs are one of the priority areas of the Microsoft activity in Armenia. What are works the Corporation had already carried out in this area?

Within the last 10 years, the Microsoft Corporation has been working with the educational community, explaining the important role of IT in education and assisting in getting an access to IT and the knowledge for their use. The corporation demonstrates a readiness to cooperate with the Governments, the state and non-state organizations, the learners and teachers as to provide conditions for the use of huge opportunities, laid in IT.

We also invite all the specialized chairs and faculties of the Armenian IHE to subscribe to the MSDN Academic Alliance Program, which is a part of the Microsoft initiative in education. Two IHE in Armenia, the American University of Armenia and the Mehrabyan's Medical University, already use this program. The advantage of this Program is that it gives an access to the teachers and students to the modern development software, to servers and platforms of the Microsoft Corporation. One of the peculiarities of the Program is that it enables the teachers and students to install the licensed products of Microsoft in their PCs as well, with the aim of study and use for scientific researches and developments. The Microsoft Academic Open License, an efficient and flexible program, is also accessible in Armenia today. It enables to get permanent licenses for Microsoft software at prices lower than those for the commercial software. The state and private Institutions of Higher Education, the secondary and specialized secondary educational institutions, the refresher courses and the institutes of advanced training, the training centers, which have licenses for educational activities, the administrative education management agencies, the state scientific-research institutions, the hospitals and teaching hospitals, the public libraries, the museums and charitable organizations can make use of its advantages.

At present, we prepare proposals to the RA Government for cooperation in education for the purpose of implementing more scaled joint projects.

What about the partner environment of Microsoft?

More progress is observed in this sphere. Thus, if the Corporation, at the first stage of its activity, had only one certified partner in Armenia in the person of one of the biggest Internet-providers of Armenia, Arminco, the number of our partners now is much greater. Dom-Daniel, Unicomp, LANS, X-Art, MTD-Group, Smart Systems, Armenian Software Companies now cooperate with Microsoft. The Bi Line Company comes out as an official distributor of the Corporation in Armenia. The support of partners is carried out by special partner programs, trainings, seminars and conferences.

We have recently signed a contract on a three-year cooperation with the Armenian cell operator, the VivaCell Company, negotiations with several other big Armenian companies are underway. We bring all our technologies, software products, complex solutions to our clients through the partners.

The first IT-month in Armenia with participation of Microsoft has been recently summed up. In your opinion, what has this project given to the country's IT-sphere and how much important it is to Armenia?

In fact, we have participated in this project, its seminars, conferences, presentations. The Vice President of the Corporation in the Central and Eastern Europe, Mr. Vahe Torossyan, also took part in the event. The Microsoft displayed a special activity in the Digitec exhibition, in the framework of which the Corporation has presented its own stand. As for the role of IT-month in Armenia, it has been held with a great success, however, besides serious achievements, it enabled to reveal some deficiencies of the sphere and to outline the ways of its improvement. In my opinion, we have not to confine ourselves to only one month per year. The events, devoted to IT, should have a continuous character, since one can achieve more noticeable results only in case of persistent laborious work. Both the authorities, businessmen and a wide public in whole are to be involved in this process.

Weather the IT influence on the country's economic development will become more noticeable in this case?

Unambiguously, but first of all, due to the own resources available, rational investments and very literate policy of authorities and business representatives, based on a successful international experience. The IT industry enables the country' s economy to use all the existing resources more efficiently by vast productivity increase that is more than urgent for Armenia. The purpose of the Microsoft initiative is for the Corporation technologies and its partners' solutions to enable, first of all, the citizens to receive different services, have an access to the information by Internet, to learn during the whole life and participate in a state administration and, secondly, the private companies to increase the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises, have an access to the state Internet services, more efficiently cooperate with partners and consumers for their business development. Third, the purpose of Microsoft is for the technologies of the Corporation and the solutions of its partners to enable the state bodies and elective persons to increase their efficiency, rebuild the relations with the population and involve all the citizens in political and other discussions, having attracted their attention to strategic directions.

However, the strict observance of the intellectual property rights is the necessary condition for IT development in the country. Otherwise, we'll not be able to stop the "brain drain" and create a favorable investment climate for the foreign big IT Corporations.

It is known that the Bi Line Company localizes the Windows XP in the Armenian language, by the Microsoft order. What is the next step of the Corporation in Armenia?

Yes, during the Corporation financing, the Bi Line had already completed the translation of the operating system Windows XP to be shortly submitted to the consumers' judgment. In my opinion, this is a very important project since it enables the wide sections of the population, especially in the distant and border regions of Armenia, to join to IT achievements. The Bi Line Company has also started to localize the most modern operating system, Microsoft Windows Vista, and we intend to offer it to the Armenian users in the second half, 2007. Taking the opportunity, I invite all the persons interested to take part in the project and make their contribution, having visited a specially created website:http://members.microsoft.com

The issue of the Armenian version of Microsoft Office 2007 is also not far off.

Lilit Aslanyan, ArmInfo, December 5.12.06.