Microsoft to focus on education, SME development

JAKARTA. Microsoft plans to utilize its 20-year presence in Indonesia by focusing its efforts on improving access to technology and investing in cloud technology for the education sector, and the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector.

On a recent visit to Indonesia, Microsoft’s president for the Asia Pacific region, Cesar Cernuda, said the US technology giant would strive to have a greater impact on the education and SME sectors by making their products more accessible to attain and use, in order to spur growth and improvement. 

To improve educational cooperation, the company plans to further its collaboration with universities and Indonesian startups in the near future through measures including provision of free software and investing more in its cloud services for use in Indonesia.

“We plan to transform the technological aspect of the education and SME sectors in Indonesia through this continued investment in this country. We believe we are able to do so, given our 20-year local presence, and are always open to increasing cooperation with government, the public and the private sector,” Cernuda told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Microsoft Indonesia’s chief operating officer and chief marketing officer Bernard Saisse explained that the company had partnered with a number of universities in Indonesia, including Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, to offer Microsoft Office 365 products free of charge.

Saisse added that the company had also been supporting the government’s attempts to narrow the digital divide within Indonesian society through focus on the education sector.

“One example of a project that we are doing with the government is cooperation between the Communications and Information Ministry to try and utilize TV channels as an Internet vehicle. We have been piloting this project for nine months,” he said.

Meanwhile, in order to help develop Indonesian SMEs, Cernuda said Microsoft would make its software more affordable for small companies, thereby “taking care of the capital expenditure for them”. 

Microsoft is currently investing up to US$10 billion in research and development for its cloud technology, with Indonesia as a focus country for the company to develop and promote its cloud technology further. Cernuda explained that making its software and cloud services more accessible and affordable to SMEs would greatly help their profit margins and growth. 

“Many large Indonesian companies have developed advanced technological infrastructure already. However, it took them a long time to get where they are now. Our approach will enable SMEs to access the kind of advanced technology that is usually only accessible to large companies,” he said.

The company’s ongoing BizSpark program, Cernuda added, was part of the approach to further Indonesian SMEs. 

The program offers local startup companies free access to Microsoft’s software for the first three years in order to help them grow. Some Indonesian startups that have benefitted from the program include Bandung-based game developer Agate Studio. (Dylan Amirio)