Microsoft is expanding and investing in Thailand

Microsoft is considering expanding its research and development capabilities in Thailand in various sectors, notably software development, high-performance computing and mobile computing, according to Microsoft (Thailand)'s Managing Director, Patama Chantaruck.

Patama said that in early March the president of Microsoft International and senior vice-president of Microsoft Corporation Jean Philippe Courtois will come to Thailand to announce Microsoft's collaborations and investments here. Courtois was introduced to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, who sat side-by-side with Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft.

Patama added that Microsoft (Thailand) will report directly at an Apac level, not an Asean level, as in the past, and the company sees Thailand as a semi-emerging country.

She said that in past three years, the company has grown from 100 employees to over 300 today, covering sales, marketing, localized language software testing and a new R&D division called Global Healthcare, which came into being when Microsoft acquired Bangkok-based company Global Care Solutions.

In addition, last year Microsoft established the Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) as a creative hub, where technology and support are provided in such a way that users are able to conveniently share knowledge and implement proofs of concept for a wide range of new software. Technologies offered at the MIC already include an RFID reader, a fingerprint reader, Windows Mobile tablet PCs and high-performance computing.

Thailand also receives a share of Microsoft's US$500 million global funding for its Partners in Learning Project, in collaboration with the Education Ministry.

"The global economic crisis will affect all countries, but the new Thai government has already stabilized the situation here and we see a lot of potential, both in people and in the market. That's why we are still considering expansion here," Patama said.

Microsoft (Thailand) Software Design director Worapon Pitayaphongpat added that the company has started by recruiting 10 new people to supplement its new R&D customer service support technology team. This team works with teams in the United States and China, and there are about 70 people globally. The new team here will develop intelligent diagnosis software to automatically analyse software configuration problems for customers, especially SMEs who don't have IT support teams like big enterprises.

He believes that Thailand has many talented people, and a lot of Thai software engineers working in Redmond could relocate here.

"If Microsoft can recruit and develop successfully for research and development here, the company will use Thailand as an R&D hub, especially for software engineering in Asia when we expand to other countries."

Patama explained that Microsoft had recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (Nectec) on R&D, offering the latest Microsoft technologies in order to encourage long-term investment and growth in Thailand.

Pansak Siriratchatapong, director of Nectec, said the MoU with Microsoft was an important milestone to enhance further co-operation and collaboration on an R&D center here in the near future.

"This collaboration will take R&D in Thailand to the next level by working with external parties and implementing Microsoft technologies that can heighten our research standards and drive the country forwards with a range of challenging and innovative IT projects," Pansak said.

He believes that Thailand has promise for R&D in the mobile, education, agriculture and healthcare sectors. He expected that if this collaboration is a success, it will put Thailand in a very good position for software engineering research and development in Asia.

He emphasized that the global economic crisis slowed industry growth, and said that the Thai software industry was expected to grow 4.9 percent, to 65 billion baht (US$1.8 billion), compared to last year's growth rate of 11.2 percent. In these circumstances, he added, it's not so easy to undertake R&D without a partner or collaboration.

The director explained that under the MoU, both sides will send staff to form a joint committee to prioritise projects, then the first stage will cover accessibility technology and the Digitized Thailand project.

Microsoft will exchange information and technology to help disable people with sight, movement, brain or speech disorders to gain access to technology that can help them lead normal and fulfilling lives.

Microsoft will also offer its "Save as Daisy" technology, designed to be compatible with Microsoft Word 2007. Users can easily convert a Word document into the Daisy XML project format under the standard of Digital Accessible Information System (Daisy), which will benefit 300,000 people.

The director continued that Nectec will use e-heritage technology from Microsoft to put information into digital form especially folk wisdom about herbs, local games, traditional dancing, art and yoga in order to encourage people to experience the benefits of digital content and to prepare Thailand for a creative digital economy. Patama added that Microsoft helped Cambodia create 3D virtual maps for Nakorn Wat, Nakorn tom and this cooperation will digitize Thai heritage for a global market.

In the second stage, both sides will develop software to tackle city traffic problem to complement in Nectec's Intelligent Transportation System project, as well as mobile information system that can display agriculture prices in any mobile operating system people in rural areas such as farmers. In addition, they are looking at interoperating software for governmental and private use and to developing new software for testing applications.

Worapon said Microsoft is bring software testing functions to Thailand. The company is starting by testing localized versions of Exchange Server 2007 before launch. He will work with Nectec and Software Park Thailand, as well as academics, to set-up a software testing course to improve software skills.

"Software testing is an important aspect of software engineering, as well as software architect and project management," Worapon emphasized.

Khunying Kalaya Sophonpanich, Minister of Science and Technology, who oversaw the MoU, added the importance of the projects arising from this collaboration should not be underestimated.

In particular, the accessibility technology is a great example of how equal access to technology can bring about not only social benefits, but real long-term economic benefits. Indeed, even though many local and international analysts are predicting that the IT industry will be hard hit by the global economic crisis, projects such as these demonstrate that there are still great opportunities to strengthen and develop Thailand's software industry by using local expertise and initiating collaborative technology projects.