Software Vendors Speak Out About the Value of Windows Vista

Thousands of software developers are set to benefit from the new Windows platform, as indicated by new IDC research. In this feature, six ISVs share their perspectives on how the new operating system supports their business.

PARIS, 13 September 2006 —It may still be months before the formal launch of the Windows Vista operating system, but independent software vendors (ISVs) in Europe have long been busy developing solutions for the new platform.

Across the region Windows Vista is helping ISVs enhance their solutions in ways that simply were not previously possible, or that required a considerable amount of effort.

Their declaration of support for the upcoming Windows operating system coincides with the release of a new report from International Data Corp. (IDC), which demonstrates the impact of Windows Vista on economic growth and employment across the EU region.

According to the independent study, over 150,000 IT companies that produce, sell or distribute products or services running on Windows Vista will employ over 400,000 people across the six-country region in 2007 alone.

“The Windows Vista operating system represents a significant opportunity for our ISV partners,” said Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International. “We want to help ISVs make the most of the new platform, which allows them to deliver software that is faster, more robust and more cost-effective than ever before.”

Representatives of numerous European ISVs have provided statements underscoring the value of the new platform to their business, as follows:

Step Ahead AG, Germany “Windows Vista and Office 2007 are the new generation of Microsoft applications,” said Wolfgang Reichenbach, CEO of Step Ahead AG, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. “We expect the usage of Windows Vista and Office 2007 to increase from 20 per cent up to 80-90 per cent among our customers within the next two years. We think that in future Microsoft applications will be more and more used as front-ends to ERP systems, so that the profound integration of both will be business-critical to all business solution ISVs. Our aim is to enable our customers to use modern Microsoft technologies and applications in order to increase productivity and efficiency. Our customers will especially benefit from using our wide variety of features in the familiar user interfaces of Microsoft applications. That is why we are engaged in several Microsoft Ascend programs since Step Ahead was founded and have already trained our development and sales staff on Windows Vista and Office 2007.”

Step Ahead AG (http://www.stepahead.eu) enables small and medium-sized companies which produce and deal with high-value products and/or provide specialized services to measurably increase productivity and profit in their market. Founded in 1999, Step Ahead AG helps its customers to be more successful by providing business solutions. Currently, 430 customers in various industries with more than 4.000 desktops use the Step Ahead ERP system Steps Business Solution. They benefit from a broad variety of flexible functionalities for marketing, sales, services and customer care as well as from highly integrated Microsoft technology and applications. The Microsoft Office Outlook integration, for example, supports sales employees by providing the Solution Selling® process on their notebooks.

Imasoft ApS, Denmark “Windows Vista has given us the opportunity to optimise our product in a way that meets the rigorous demands of our customers,” said Poul Bodeholt, co-founder of Imasoft. “We are able to develop better features in a tenth of the time it would have taken before. This means faster development and faster innovation, helping accelerate our time-to-market with a stronger, more competitive product. In our principal markets, we expect revenues to increase by 100 million Danish Kr. (€13.5 million) over the next five years with the new, Windows Vista-based solution.”

Imasoft ApS (http://uk.imasoft.dk) is a Danish-owned and -operated company specialising in software and systems for police and intelligence agencies, and other customers within the field of law enforcement. Imasoft is typical of many of the independent software vendors (ISVs) that help make up the 150,000 company IT ecosystem in the six countries researched by IDC. Based in Fakse, Denmark, the company employs five people. For the past four years its developers have been working on CrimeSceneNet, a Windows Vista-based product which will enable police and law enforcement agencies to create panoramic, three dimensional, digital representations of real crime scenes, enabling forensic and other evidence to be plotted accurately and investigation scenarios to be analysed.

Prim’X Technologies, France “Prim’X has been working very closely with Microsoft during the past months to ensure our product, ZoneCentral, is Vista-ready when the new operating system is released,” said Serge Binet, CEO of Prim’X Technologies, one of Microsoft’s French IDEES partners. “A significant part of our R&D team is 100 per cent dedicated to ZoneCentral, Windows Vista version. Security is a key issue for Microsoft customers, and we expect Vista to generate additional revenues for us. Many of the early adopters of this new operating system will need to add a supplementary layer of security to protect their sensitive information. We are very proud to be among the first French software editors to present a Vista-ready product that proves our technical proactivity and technological advance.”

Prim’X Technologies (http://www.primx.fr), a French provider of security solutions, was created in 2003 by cryptography experts. Prim’X Technologies has developed and commercialized next-generation encryption software that uses the "on-the-fly encryption" technique and is based on the [FSRd] low-level file access interception technology developed and patented by the company.

Top of page