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How is the current market for MS Enterprise Search offerings like in
India?
The need for a search function is basically driven by the amount of data and
not necessarily by the size of the company. Last year, we released SharePoint as
a standalone option, whereas earlier it was a part of the information work
appliance. Our latest offering is-Search Server 2008 Express, which is freely
available for download. It was launched in an endeavor to offer something for
the smaller companies. This may include smaller work groups that have standalone
servers. Apart from Express, Microsoft's enterprise search lineup includes
Search Server 2008, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Where is the most demand coming from?
The most demand comes from the companies that have huge amounts of data and
need to search quickly and constantly. These include ITeS, pharma and
manufacturing companies. Our focus is mostly on mid to enterprise markets
because these companies have multiple locations. Also, they are based on
institutional knowledge, which has to be accessed from all the locations, hence
these types of companies find search server useful.
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Sanjay Manchanda
Director-Business Division, Microsoft India |
What gives MS search offerings an edge over its competitors?
Our competitors include the likes of IBM and Google. But the differentiator
is that we have built our search capabilities so deeply that it is seamless. We
offer a single place to search information of different types. Our recent
acquisition of FAST, a provider of enterprise search solutions, also gives us an
edge over other players in the segment.
What is the business model you use and what are the opportunities offered
by enterprise search offerings for the channel?
We deploy a multi-tier distribution channel. The model is completely channel
driven. We had initiated QuickStart program to get partners on board. Globally,
we have 3,600 partners and in India, 50 to 60 partners. Partners can expect
revenue work streams when they are planning and servicing the end-user. For
example, many e-gov projects are going paperless, which involves customizing.
All these are opportunities for the channel.
What is the kind of revenues a company would have to invest to get the
benefit of MS search offerings?
Microsoft's enterprise search lineup has three different offerings. Express
is free for download. Then there is search server, which is ideal for a 100-200
people company that has lots of indexing. Office SharePoint server is for the
high-end companies, where the business critical needs are higher like Wipro and
Infosys.The retail price of search server is Rs 15,000-20,000 for unlimited
number of users. The cost of SharePoint would depend on the number of user
licenses.
What is your roadmap for MS search offerings in India?
India is a part of our global strategy and an important market for us. Given
the investments we have made and the launch of three new separate search
offerings in the form of Search Server 2008 Express, Search Server 2008 and
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, we want to show our dedication towards
building on structured data and relevance of search results. We believe that
search is the next killer app and it will play an important role in every
aspect.
RUTH SAMSON
ruths@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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