We offer a single place to search all information

How is the current market for MS Enterprise Search offerings like in
India?

The need for a search function is basically driven by the amount of data and
not necessarily by the size of the company. Last year, we released SharePoint as
a standalone option, whereas earlier it was a part of the information work
appliance. Our latest offering is-Search Server 2008 Express, which is freely
available for download. It was launched in an endeavor to offer something for
the smaller companies. This may include smaller work groups that have standalone
servers.

Apart from Express, Microsoft's enterprise search lineup includes Search
Server 2008, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.



Where is the most demand coming from?

The most demand comes from the companies that have huge amounts of data and
need to search quickly and constantly. These include ITeS, pharma and
manufacturing companies. Our focus is mostly on mid to enterprise markets
because these companies have multiple locations. Also, they are based on
institutional knowledge, which has to be accessed from all the locations.

What gives MS search offerings an edge over its competitors?

We have built our search capabilities so deeply that it is seamless. We
offer a single place to search information of different types.

Our recent acquisition of FAST, a provider of enterprise search solutions,
also gives us an edge over other players in the segment.

Sanjay Manchanda Director-Business Division, Microsoft India

What are the opportunities offered by enterprise search offerings for the
channel?

Partners can expect revenue work streams when they are planning and
servicing the end-user. For example, many e-gov projects are going paperless,
which involves customizing.



What is the kind of revenues a company would have to invest to get the
benefit of MS search offerings?

Microsoft's enterprise search lineup has three different offerings. Express
is free for download. Then there is search server, which is ideal for a 100-200
people company that has lots of indexing. Office SharePoint server is for the
high-end companies, where the business critical needs are higher like Wipro and
Infosys.

The retail price of search server is Rs 15,000-20,000 for unlimited number of
users. The cost of SharePoint would depend on the number of user licenses.



What is your roadmap for MS search offerings in India?

India is a part of our global strategy and an important market for us. Given
the investments we have made and the launch of three new separate search
offerings . We want to show our dedication towards building on structured data
and relevance of search results. We believe that search is the next killer app
and it will play an important role in every aspect.

RUTH SAMSON

(ruths@cybermedia.co.in)