MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGIES OPTIMIZE IT-SECTOR OF ARMENIA

Lilit Aslanyan, ArmInfo, December 5.12.06.

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:

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

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress