People’s mindset shifting from pirated to genuine software products
While technology is advancing and new smart devices are evolving rapidly around the world, the people’s mindset is dramatically changing from purchasing pirated software tools to genuine ones, says Brian Kealey, Microsoft Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives.
He made these comments to the Business Times on the sidelines of the company’s partnership with Singer to launch Office 365 for the Sri Lankan consumer market at the BMICH in Colombo recently.
He said, “There is a shift in people’s understanding on the risks of downloading a pirated Microsoft Office 365 package to a genuine package.
There are always cheaper ways to do anything. If you really want the cheapest way, a pen and paper would do. At some point there has to be a value proposition that can make people think differently about the value they are getting from any product.”
When someone hacks and downloads a pirated Office 365 software, they probe into the software so they can access the content and data. It’s a risk that everybody who purchases a pirated Office 365 software, takes. As awareness is growing, there is a shift to the risk and benefit of downloading a pirated software, he added.
A lot of big corporates and small businesses in Sri Lanka are very quickly moving to the cloud, he stated. “There is a shift from consumers buying a traditional product, owning it and upgrading it every 3-5 years. If companies want to move faster they have to continue with innovation by moving to the cloud. In the consumer space people have multiple smart devices and look for online platforms to store their documents so that they can access them from anywhere.”
Mr. Kealey also mentioned that Office 365 subscription not only allows people to get the traditional office products but also access to new innovations in these platforms with all new updated features.
Any reseller can access Office 365 package and there is a big reseller community in Sri Lanka. Singer is a strong device end software perspective company who takes the time to educate customers and help them understand the benefits.
He noted that the partnership with Singer is one of the biggest Microsoft has had structured around consumer cloud services. “As far as the South East Asian region is concerned we have a strong relationship with the consumers, commercials and governments. We have worked hard to be consistent and reliable in everything we do and to make sure to protect people’s information. Our business in the region is going well on the back of good trust and relationship including quality software,” added Mr. Kealey.
Some of the future plans Microsoft has in Sri Lanka include working with a number of large corporate customers to innovate and digitally transform products and services to their customers. “We are also working with the Government to help Sri Lanka’s startup ecosystem and transform education. At the moment there is a project where we are providing 5000 scholarships for computer science training and we are training 1000 kids all across the island on basic computer science and programming skills through our code initiative.”