Microsoft Pakistan – Delivering Digital Success

Before the advent of PCs in our lives, computing was just for those with high IQs and degrees in mathematics. It was in the early 80s when Microsoft broke the myth and was instrumental in making the first truly personal computer.

With the mass-market computer, Microsoft truly brought computing to the masses. For the first time, the elderly, the young and the technically illiterate were empowered to use computers. In the beginning, the luxury was limited to just the affluent people. But now the computer is almost as much a part of the home as the television-set or the microwave.

Many marketing and project management programs in the world’s leading universities quote Microsoft as an example of how to develop an organization and sustain the position as the world’s biggest software company. Organizations around the world also consistently recognize Microsoft as one of the leading global corporate citizens. In line with their global philosophy of “Your potential, our passion”, Microsoft decided to extend its reach arms and entered the Pakistani market to tap this talent-rich region. Similarly, Microsoft’s masterful integration of the internet within Windows means that for most people the internet MEANS Internet Explorer.

It is a brand which has touched and changed millions of lives. The moment you click the Send/Receive button on your Outlook, you get a number of emails and the tasks of your entire day are decided.

Microsoft Pakistan Country Manager Kamal Ahmed says that it is essential for a company to stay ahead of the latest technological developments. “They’ll rise and fall in a matter of years if they don’t have a technology sustainable business model. Microsoft has been able to out-maneuver the competition and achieve success through relentless research and development,” said Kamal Ahmed and added “Microsoft has achieved success by always providing what the market needed.”

The Microsoft formula is to achieve the right balance by spreading the software development costs. This formula was applied repeatedly over the years, slashing the price of software until everyone could afford it. Their revolutionary approach showed that computer programs, which cost over a thousand dollars, could be sold for a fraction of the price. This approach drove forward the computing revolution of the 80s and the net revolution of the 90s. Microsoft’s aggressive approach made computing far more affordable, leading to today’s society, where we truly afford to have a computer at every desk.

“If we look at the business strategies in 1980’s, Microsoft tops the few best. The Company recruited young college graduates and empowered them with the passion of inventing wonders. Since then Microsoft has continued to pursue the agenda of expedient computing, empowering thousands of small businesses, often without the funds to employ dedicated IT admin staff, to manage their own computer networks. These businesses are now able to sell on the web via Microsoft’s standardized point and click administration interface.” Professor Dr. Zahid Saleem from Federal Urdu University lauds Microsoft’s successful business model.

As the world’s largest software company, Microsoft is also active on its social responsibility front and helps create social and economic opportunities. Its technology innovations, people and partnerships make a meaningful contribution to the prosperity of communities and the sustainability of the planet. This commitment is rooted in Microsoft’s culture and reflects how and why they do business.

Microsoft played an eminent role in the massive rescue and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of the recent floods in Pakistan. In the first and the most urgent phase of this humanitarian assistance, Microsoft Pakistan team volunteered to donate and distribute food items comprising flour, rice, cooking oil, sugar and tea to hundreds of families left destitute by the heavy monsoon rains, which ravaged different parts of Pakistan. A number of groups of individuals from Microsoft team visited different flood relief camps to deliver relief goods which reached over thousands of people through the emergency intervention.

For all these efforts, Microsoft has been recognized by the US Chamber of commerce as the most significant corporate donor to the Pakistan Flood Disaster with a contribution of over $ 5 million.

Keeping up its trend of innovation, Microsoft has also globally adopted a unique approach of corporate philanthropy – the employee volunteer day. Every year employees are given a day off with pay to adopt a socially responsible cause.

Microsoft executed the novel idea of Employee Volunteer Day for the first time in Pakistan last year when a group of employees decided to spend their time and talent with the children of Gehwara – an orphanage on the outskirts of Rawalpindi. This year a team of 36 employees spent their day with the members of Fountain House which is an institute for the mental health. The activities of the day included recreational activities like painting competition, music and sports. Microsoft also upgraded software and hardware for the computer lab at Fountain House.

Microsoft, a company that may well spend more on R&D than any other business believes its strategy is paying off, and in the present day the proof is the Windows 7. The launch of Microsoft’s new products like Windows 7 is described as an end to frustration for millions of computer users who, unlike most of the readers of this article, have neither the time nor the inclination to discover the highly logical (but also deeply complicated) way that computing systems such as Windows work.

Millions of dollars of research and observation, funded by Microsoft’s amazing success and commitment to research and development (currently $ 9 billion every year), have gone into creating an operating system that is the most intuitive yet, especially for people new to computing.

Most professionals today want to instantly access and effectively manage their work in the office, at home or on the go. IT professionals, in particular, are challenged to deliver business value to their companies while continuing to reduce their costs. In addition, businesses need to comply with new and increasing regulatory mandates and security protocols, while also focusing on driving efficiencies.

Addressing such needs in Pakistan, Microsoft kicked off “Open Door” the biggest IT event of 2010 in Karachi. The 2-day event which was attended by over 1400 IT professionals and experts from all over the country, showcased the latest innovations in the industry comprising of mobile solutions and business applications like Microsoft Communications Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM / ERP and Microsoft SharePoint 2010. The overall theme of the event reflected how evolution in technology can enable IT products to become more purposeful and flexible, meeting the needs of the people regardless of how, where and when they work.

Microsoft Pakistan intends to continue with such initiatives in the future, by bringing more of its products to this market, finding effective IT solutions for business concerns and making more and more people Windows-savvy!


  • Microsoft did not gave us the personal computer, it was Apple with their Apple II and it had no Microsoft software in it. One of the “killer applications” was VisiCalc, a spreadsheet.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visicalc

    Two years before IBM PC came out!

    — With the mass-market computer, Microsoft truly brought computing to the masses.

    First, Microsoft had no “computer” to sell. Second, when IBM make IBM PC, they did not want it to compete with their core business, mainframes. So they did not make it as good as it could be. It was just meant to be for business executives not home computers (remember IBM PCjr???)

    The article also ignores the many cases where Microsoft forced company manufacturers to ship their operating system. “If you sell our OS, we will give it to you at a BIG DISCOUNT. If you sell someone else’s OS also, you will have to pay full price for Windows. What will you do?” That’s one reason they got rich.

    This article is marketing fluff and full of innaccuracies.


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