Microsoft aims to be platform of choice in changing marketplace

Microsoft wants to be the first choice as a productivity platform in the mobile-device and cloud segments. 

 

Microsoft has always been the platform of choice in the personal-computer era, but in the mobile and cloud eras, it has started to reinvent itself based on customers’ needs. 

 

Haresh Khoobchandani, managing director of Microsoft (Thailand), said three broad themes were driving its clients’ demands. First is the need to improve the customer experience. Second is the transformation into digital organisations. Third is learning how to build a responsive organisation. 

These big themes are what many chief executive officers were starting to think about. Four mega-trends are driving this: social, mobile, cloud and big data. Microsoft Thailand is also moving along these lines. 

 

The third platform of connected devices and social technology over the cloud layer is becoming more mainstream. Khoobchandani said this forced organisations to think about how they operate in the highly connected world in very different ways. It is not just that it is great to have a lot of devices, but it is how to manage these devices, manage security, prevent data leakage and empower people. 

 

“Our intention is to make Microsoft a more open company providing services across platforms – Android, iOS and Windows. For example, our cloud service Azure and Office 365 are provided across platforms. Currently, globally Microsoft supports 1 billion customers, 200 million businesses, running on Microsoft’s cloud services in 76 markets,” he said.

 

Microsoft’s presence in the cloud is growing. He said the firm was concerned about bringing reliability, scalability and security together to benefit and to leverage the existing investments of customers. 

 

“We want to help customers start their journey into the cloud, to go mobile, no matter the platforms.” 

 

In the future, Microsoft will have a universal application that can run on all screen sizes. It will be in the next version of Windows. 

 

However, there is a big cyber-security hole in Thailand. It is among the top five countries in the world in terms of malware attacks because of a lack of attention to security. Piracy is another big factor. Companies are not managing software assets well. Piracy causes a lot of malware.

Microsoft will help enable small and medium-sized enterprises to take advantage of cloud technology. It will help train SMEs through the relevant associations. It will partner with these SME-related associations to make Office 365 available at an affordable price for businesses. 

 

“We want to help SMEs become more competitive and understand how to deploy simple solutions for very little cost. We will work with different partners to provide different types of managed services to SMEs,” Khoobchandani said.

 

Microsoft will help organisations rethink their enterprise solutions in the digital age, helping them become more responsive to their customers by delivering more services with good customer experience through intelligent business analytics.

 

Becoming more responsive to customer demands is increasingly important in this fast-changing world. Technology can help organisations respond quickly so they can compete and they grow their businesses. CEOs need to set a vision on how their organisations can become agile, nimble and responsive as well as increase the speed at which they bring new products to the market. 

 

Khoobchandani said Microsoft Thailand was doing very well in both the consumer and commercial areas. For example, many mid-level managers and executives in Thailand had started to use the Surface Pro 3 two-in-one device. It is gaining a good share of the Thai market, especially in the category of devices costing Bt26,000 and above, where it has around 10 per cent of the market and is gaining very fast.