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Microsoft employees Bodin Dresevic and Dejan Cvetkovic wanted to provide greater opportunities to knowledge-based workers in their homeland of Serbia and Montenegro. The creation of the Development Centre in Belgrade, the first of its kind in Europe and one of only four in the world, has provided employment opportunities for generations of talented and educated professionals in a growing market.
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The goal of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research is to provide access to life-long learning for all Estonian people and to integrate traditional educational values with contemporary. The Ministry is certain that the education system should respect the individual aptitudes and differences of every learner, and is therefore dedicated to providing access to IT for special-needs children. Microsoft Estonia partnered with the Estonian Information Technology College and DHL to provide 160 donated and refurbished computers to more than 30 schools catering to special-needs children. The computers were donated through the Ministry. The result of the project can be best summarised by a quote from Kai Kukk, Advisor of Special Educational Needs, Estonian Ministry of Education and Research.
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Ariño School has raised educational standards and improved motivation amongst children by giving them access to online research, and interactive learning tools. The project has been so successful that the Ministry of Education in Aragon has announced that it will provide a further 14,000 Tablet PCs to schools in the region over the next three years. Six other regional governments in Spain have also started to introduce Tablet PCs and wireless networks in their local schools.
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The establishment of a Microsoft IT Academy at the Windhoek Vocational Training Centre underlines the philosophy of Microsoft's Partners in Learning initiative, providing the resources and expertise to set up a sustainable partnership that will improve access to ICT skills for Namibian students into the future.
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Technology has the power to deliver new learning opportunities and increase employment prospects. Since 1997, Microsoft South Africa, with local and international partners, has established over 30 digital villages throughout South Africa. The digital villages provide community members with technology access and training that may help them obtain employment. In each of the villages, there is a Community Technology Learning Centre (CTLC) equipped with Internet-enabled PCs, the latest software and other learning resources such as technology books. The centres are managed by community members trained in information technology and management. Local people can now gain new skills to help them gain employment and communicate in near-real time with friends and family. Alongside Microsoft, partners contributing to the success of the initiative include HP, Intel, Mustek, Pinnacle, Ultra Technologies, Compucomp, Africare, SAPPI, Old Mutual, Kodak, and Arivia.kom, and local governments and communities.
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When a serious accident left Martin Kovar disabled, he discovered his passion for IT. To help other disabled people gain IT skills and realise their potential, Kovar co-founded an organisation called PCs Against Barriers. Supported by the Czech Republic’s Charta 77 foundation, the programme combines physical rehabilitation exercises, computer skills training and extra-curricular activities for hundreds of disabled people. Many of them have enjoyed fulfilling second careers or launched their own businesses. The programme has been made possible by the public/private collaboration between several local NGOs, state agencies and Microsoft Czech. Microsoft has made significant software and hardware donations to the Prague-based, not-for-profit organisation. More than 1,000 people have already received IT training from PCs against Barriers and hundreds have already become certified Microsoft product specialists. The PCs Against Barriers foundation boasts a 98 per cent employment rate among its initial graduates. Many work from home while others go on to study for degrees or attend vocational courses in electronics, architecture, graphic arts or desktop publishing. In addition to skills training, PCs Against Barriers provides computers to partner organisations that hire programme graduates. It also equips programme participants with personal computers, enabling the most mobility-impaired to work from home. The programme’s IT skills training courses are conducted at schools in Prague, as well as in workshops adapted for disabled people in Zlín, Otrokovice, Plzeň Třemošná, Brno Kociánka.
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The Kenya ICT Trust Fund, a private-public partnership including Microsoft Partners in Learning, is helping the government in Kenya to achieve its vision of providing information and communication technology (ICT) education to all its schools. Partners in Learning has helped the Trust Fund develop a National Education ICT Strategy for the country and mobilise over $80,000 of contributions for initiatives in schools. Microsoft is also training secondary school teachers and helping to develop a national ICT curriculum. The momentum created by the Kenya ICT Trust Fund is helping the Ministry of Education lead the way in providing a 21st-century education to school children across the nation.
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National Security Day in Finland is an annual project organised by over 20 government and commercial organisations. In 2005, online safety for primary school children was the focus of the day in schools, and Microsoft Partners in Learning helped to develop the e-learning materials that were used in schools countrywide. For the local authority of Tampere, Finland’s second-largest city, Internet safety is absolutely vital because 80% of its children under 10 use the Internet. As a result, Partners in Learning trained head teachers and other delegates from every primary and secondary school in Tampere, to ensure a successful initiative.
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Secondary technical school Na Třebešíně (SPS Na Třebešíně) believes that e-learning is the future of education. It is therefore one of the first schools in the Czech Republic to invest in Microsoft Class Server 4.0. The school is using Class Server to create and deliver e-learning materials, administer and grade tests, and improve collaboration between teachers and students. Microsoft Partners in Learning has supported the school with technical support, training, and e-learning content. SPS Na Třebešíně is one of many Czech schools that Partners in Learning is helping to use Class Server, under an agreement with the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
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The Urban Community of Lezíria do Tejo (CULT), working in partnership with Microsoft Corporation and Portuguese IT services company Novabase, launched the Ribatejo Digital project to automate and simplify service delivery for its 11 associate municipalities. A central technology environment based on Microsoft® Windows Server System™ integrated server software was implemented to interoperate with different municipal back-office systems using XML-based Web services. The environment also supports a regional geographic information system based on an application from ESRI. Innovative municipal, tourism, and business information and services can now be provided through a regional portal as well as the Web sites of the 11 municipalities. The project is helping the municipalities deliver services more efficiently, and is providing a catalyst for other organizations in the region to modernize.
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Managed by Globalgarve, a public-private regional economic development agency, the Algarve Digital project was launched to provide online tourism and public administration services in the Algarve. A central technology environment based on Microsoft® Windows Server System™ integrated server software supports regional portals for tourism and e-government services as well as the Web sites of the region’s 11 municipalities. The solution is helping tourism operators to reach visitors from around the world and municipalities to deliver their services more efficiently. Algarve Digital is widely seen as the start of an important process of modernisation and innovation in the Algarve region.

Brescia City Council in Italy has deployed new IT infrastructure to improve communications with local citizens and businesses. Microsoft® Content Management Server 2002 was chosen to enhance the management of online resources. Now, each operational division maintains and publishes its own Web content, reducing costs and ensuring fast updates of online material. Alongside this new system, the council implemented Microsoft CRM. This is used to log, track, and resolve 1,600 citizen queries per year. Together, the new technologies support enhanced access to City Council services and faster, more effective resolution of citizen queries. The systems comply fully with legislation on citizen privacy, ensuring continued confidence in the City Council’s online services.

The Association of Municipalities of the District of Évora (AMDE), in partnership with the Regional Development Agency of Alentejo, University of Évora, and Évora City Council, is leading the Évora Digital District Project to help the growth of the regional knowledge economy and to bring its 14 associate municipalities and tourism industry into the information age. A district portal was developed as an electronic front door to municipal, regional, business, and tourism services. The portal and supporting infrastructure are standardised on Microsoft® Windows Server System™ products, with Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 used to publish and manage portal content. Web services are used to transfer data between the municipalities’ different back-office systems. An increasing number of municipal services are now going online, from building-permit applications to online discussion forums.

The Vale do Sousa Digital’ project was launched by six municipalities to simplify and improve the quality of public services and information through the re-engineering of back office processes and the development of regional portals for citizens, businesses and tourists. Under a tight deadline, the portals were developed using the Microsoft .NET Framework and are supported by Microsoft Content Management Server running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 along with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server. The overall project is laying the foundations of the information society in the Vale do Sousa region and helping to ensure a greater diffusion of information technology among municipalities, local businesses and private citizens.

Responding to an average of almost 1,200 emergency calls a day, the Firefighters of Paris must respond as quickly as possible, and communicate and operate with utmost efficiency. Committed to using best available technology, the Firefighters are creating SYNTIA 2, an integrated response management solution, using the Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 development system, Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005, and other Microsoft products and technologies. The integration between Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 allows developers to work with high productivity, delivering results rapidly. A life-critical application, SYNTIA 2 will enable record-low response times of less than a minute from call pickup to dispatch, integrate all critical information systems and communications, and enable the Firefighters to use their resources for best impact in delivering a high quality of services.

The City Parliament of Zurich wanted to improve member services to its 125 elected deputies and reduce IT administration costs. The deputies were struggling to cope with mountains of paper-based documents for parliamentary business, especially as many of them were not full-time politicians. The parliament engaged Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner 1eEurope to implement a new Council Information System, which was completed in February 2005. It uses a stack of related Microsoft products based on Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003. As a result, the parliament has achieved greater transparency to the public, halved its IT operating costs, and improved its business systems. Deputies no longer need to keep paper-based files, but instead prepare for parliamentary sessions by downloading the latest version of all the information from the portal.

Israel is improving the quality of its public services while reducing administrative costs and complexities through the deployment of a unified interagency and public-facing e-government infrastructure. Standardized on the Microsoft® Windows Server System™, solutions include government intranet and enterprise resource planning (ERP) as well as a public portal with access to uniform electronic forms and online payment services. Security is addressed with public key infrastructure (PKI)–based smart cards being issued to all government employees and, ultimately, to all citizens. The unified e-government infrastructure is paving the way for interagency information sharing and workflow, and is enabling the delivery of seamless services to the public.

INPS migrated from AS/400s to Web technologies and open systems, choosing the .NET architecture in order to meet the evolving needs of users and the growing responsibilities in the welfare sector. This record migration dramatically reduced operating and development costs, improved efficiency and productivity, and allowed leveraging the institute’s rich competences and software assets.
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Turku Polytechnic, located in Southwest Finland, needed to cut the time taken to issue user IDs, passwords, roles, and access rights to its student and learning community. The polytechnic worked with other universities and institutions on the implementation of a new solution for the management of user data. By using Microsoft® Identity Integration Server (MIIS) 2003, user management information systems running in different technology environments can be centralized and automated. Previously, some students waited weeks for user IDs and passwords that are now provided in just a few hours. MIIS 2003 is enhancing both the quality of system maintenance and data security, and improving the service offered to students. In the next phase of the rollout, MIIS 2003 will be extended to the teaching staff. The polytechnic estimates MIIS 2003 will pay for itself within a year through savings on work time and greater efficiency.

The expertiseireland.com research portal, launched in July 2003, allows closer collaboration between industry and Ireland's universities for the exploitation of academic knowledge and the creation of new business opportunities.

At the Swiss Canton of Vaud University of Engineering (EIVD), there are approximately 2,000 desktops and laptops running either Microsoft® Windows® or Linux operating systems, a situation which caused administrative and security problems and did not allow people working under Linux access to the university's system resources. Using free Microsoft Windows Services for Unix (SFU) version 3.5 software solved the problem and enabled the Linux computers to be integrated into the centralized Windows operating system. Now users can enter the same password in both configurations, are managed centrally in the same way, and have identical access to the university network's resources.

Czech Republic secondary machinery school SPS Na Trebesine replaced the students’ and employees’ unsatisfying information system with a centralized portal solution with simple user access. The system is built on the Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 technology that, together with products such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 communication and collaboration server and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000, provides a unified information system for both the students and the teachers, along with controlled access to its services and to educational and informational content.

The National College of Ireland (NCI) is a nonprofit college based in Dublin, serving 5,500 students. Its mission is to provide a centre of academic excellence, focused on the changing needs of today's learner. Ward Solutions, an IT consulting and e-business systems integrator and one of the first Microsoft® Gold Certified Security Partners in Ireland, began by building on the college’s existing computer-usage policy, to develop a complete set of IT security polices. The new Learning Gateway solution delivered by Ward has given NCI a competitive edge in the higher education market, by providing flexible and innovative mechanisms to support the college and learners at a time, place, and pace to suit their needs.

Many students in the primary and secondary schools of Velas, in the Azores, do not have a computer at home and they rarely use computers outside of their information technology classes. It is also a challenge for these schools to keep up with best practice in education, because they tend to be small and isolated. The Microsoft Class Server learning platform deployed in partnership with the Regional Directorate of Education for the Azores, has proved to be a great asset for students, teachers and parents alike. It has helped the schools in Azores combat the problem of islolation, by providing teachers with a single interface to create, deliver and grade lessons and assessments over the Web. Parents can also use the platform to track the progress of their children.
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The Trust’s long-term technology partner, World Class International (WCI), implemented Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Enterprise Edition. A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, WCI had previously rolled out Microsoft Active Directory® directory service, for the organisation. Sao Sebastiao Hospital, Portugal
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São Sebastião Hospital in Santa Maria de Feira, Portugal, wanted to implement a unified technology environment to serve the needs of patients rather than depend on isolated systems for each healthcare professional and department within the hospital. First deployed in the emergency department, Medtrix EPR, an electronic patient record system, was developed as a Web-based application using Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET 2003 and the Microsoft .NET Framework. The application provides physicians an integrated view of all clinical information relating to patients, starting with hospital admissions.

The Provincial Government of the Western Cape (PGWC) in South Africa needs to reduce maternal and child mortality to meet national healthcare priorities. Its Department of Health (DoH) wanted to build an automated and integrated system to give doctors timely information about pregnant women linked to its Patient Administration System (PAS). Using the Microsoft® .NET Framework and Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003, the IT team built its own system to gather data on mothers and babies during pregnancy and early infancy. CRADLE (Central Recording of All Data from Local Establishments) will be rolled out to all provincial hospitals in the Western Cape. The simplicity of the solution and its low total cost of ownership are ideally suited to meet the DoH’s targets in a cost-effective way. It provides support for mothers and babies in rural communities.

Israel Police is regarded as one of the most progressive, best-trained, and most dedicated forces in the world, with approximately 27,000 officers spread over six districts, 17 sub-districts, and some 70 police stations. In 1999, in an effort to be accountable and responsive to the needs and concerns of citizens and to demonstrate the impact of its efforts in areas of crime, traffic law, and beyond, Israel Police implemented a basic system for collecting performance information. However, the system lacked tools for organizing information to make informed decisions about how to improve service performance. Israel Police chose a corporate performance management solution from Microsoft® Certified Partner Panorama Software that is based on Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005. With this solution, Israel Police plan to improve the quality of service it provides to citizens.

Modern police forces have a swathe of information tools available, but they can rarely be accessed directly on the beat. To increase the time that its police spend on the beat, rather than on their walkie-talkies communicating back to base, or in the office filling in forms, Thames Valley Police is piloting a mobile system based on the Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 2003 software for Pocket PCs. Currently being tested in the field by around 70 officers, the Smart Beat system is already delivering significant time savings to the force, with each user making an estimated 60 per cent more vehicle and person checks per week. Each check now takes about 20 seconds, as opposed to the three minutes it took previously. Pilot team members are also spending about one hour more on the beat per shift as a result of being able to access their e-mails and calendars on the move. The efficiency gains are the result of using smart client applications to ensure the solution delivers exactly what constables are looking for.

Ministry for Justice is part of the Lower Saxony government, and therefore responsible for courts, the Public Attorney´s Office and penal system. The IT-Infrastructure however was obsolete and locally spread over 180 locations. The solution was a centralized structure with a new system architecture and only 7 server locations, as well as a modern client operating system. This service enables the ministry for justice, Lower Saxony to reduce the overall costs and ensures better safety through high control and central set-ups.

The Italian Railway Police provides a nationwide policing service for the rail operator, its staff, and passengers. Using European Union funding, it implemented an automated closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance system to connect with other agencies and to improve crime detection rates and prevention work. The system, known as Integrated Multimedia Archive System (IMAS), was built using the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 with Active Directory®, and Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004. Thanks to IMAS, by June 2006 the railway police will create a network of more than 3,000 CCTV cameras, and 25 operations rooms ensuring nationwide coordination between agencies. Providing an equivalent level of security monitoring using only human resources would have involved a small army of police officers. Integration of information resources will help steer the railway police towards more intelligence-led policing work.