WP Publishers partner with Microsoft

The Indian IT books industry hitherto confined to importing titles is in for a change. WP Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd (WPPD), among the early players in this arena has partnered with Microsoft to launch the South Asian edition of Microsoft Press Developer series. This partnership would for the first time make local editions of leading titles of the Developer Series available in India and elsewhere in other SAARC countries (excluding Pakistan). Founded in 1998, WPPD is a group company of WORD POWER, a pioneer in IT book distribution and retailing with 500 corporates as its clientele.

Commenting on the decision, Siriporn Songvatanakamchon, BDM, Microsoft Press said, "India with its fledgling IT industry represents a big market for authorized and quality titles like ours. The availability of local editions results in better knowledge dissemination and skill development in technologies which in turn aids the building of a quality talent base. The local editions would result in huge savings of upto 70 percent for the buyer."

According to Bhagirathy Ramaswamy, MD, WPPD, "The partnership with Microsoft marks our serious foray into IT publishing. With our expertise and reach we intend to increase the market share of MS books by 32 percent in the next two years. Another fall-out of the partnership would be renewed market excitement generated by the official coming to India of authentic MS titles which are hugely popular world over."

The partnership also comes at the right time as Indian Universities and technical education institutes align their curriculum with existing technology trends and demand of which Microsoft Technologies are a dominant part. This new need would be effectively met by the partnership.

For developers into hardcore programming, the tie-up would be a boon as most MS books are written by the software development team at Microsoft, which adds value to the product and enhances effective usage of the technologies.

Though published figures are not available, the IT Publishing and distribution market in India is a sizable one with the Bangalore market alone estimated to be over Rs 10

crore.

WPPD currently represents global publishers like Pearson Education (which owns Addison Wesley, Prentice-Hall, Macmillan Computer Publishing etc) and Harcourt Brace (which owns Morgan Kaufman and Academic Press etc). The company is aggressively expanding its presence in this growing market through partnerships and increased market reach.