Thursday, October 11, 2012

Microsoft helping city businesses to be compliant of new US laws


Chennai:
In a bid to increase the trade between India and United States, Microsoft is working with small and medium businesses in the city and state to make them globally competitive by making them comply with new US laws on information technology.

Prateek Mehta, Microsoft’s director of small medium business and Anil Varghese, Microsoft’s regional director-south said that the focus is now on creating awareness about the new US laws which has been backed by 39 states to prevent usage of illegal or stolen information technology by using their existing state unfair competition laws.

“We have tied up with various chambers including Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC)n to create awareness about the law,” Varghese said.

He said Microsoft will be offering free services under the Software Asset Management (SAM) programme, which is a best practice incorporating a set of proven processes and procedures for managing and optimizing the organization's IT assets.

“We focused on Chennai as it is a big market for small and medium businesses which does business with multiple manufacturing clusters,” Varghese added.

“On a annual basis SAM programme has 1,000 plus customers of which 30 per cent are from south,” said Varghese.

Earlier, addressing the event organized by IACC, US Consul General Jennifer A McIntyre said United States wants to help India have a strong system of intellectual property protection especially in information technology. “As the US is the second largest exports market for Indian manufacturers, it is important that Indian manufacturers consider aspects of software compliance,” she added.

She said IPR enforcement strengthens the investment climate to attract and retain innovative companies and creative artists that are the engines of economic growth.

She said as per the report of Organisation of economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates trade in counterfeit and pirated goods across national borders may have totaled around $200 billion.

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