VILNIUS - Microsoft is on the verge of opening a new Innovation Center in Kaunas where students, businesspeople and members of government will be able to brainstorm, work and learn free of charge. It will be the first such center in the country.
The center, which is due to open on March 19, is part of the company's growing investment into the region.
During a Microsoft CIO conference in Lisbon, which was aimed at discussing technology's role in surviving the economic crisis, the company restated its plans to invest around $400 million (317 million euros) into the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region with about 10 percent going to the Baltics.
CEE has been identified as one of the company's key demographics, with 30 percent growth predicted for 2009. Microsoft country manager for Lithuania Mindaugas Glodas told TBT that the center would stimulate e-governance, introduce students to new ideas and help information technology (IT) professionals to branch out into the international market.
"The idea of this innovation center is to pilot e-government solutions. We want to have some infrastructure where we can demo things and do it with a partner and do things with the public and government officials," the country manager said.
"The other thing is that we want to attract people and perform educational 'boot camps' 's training for 10 to 12 people spending a couple days digging deeply into a narrow subject," he said.
Universities are excited about the new center, which they say will help in the exchanging of ideas and contacts.
"Our main idea was that Microsoft is just the first step in this way. We have been talking with all companies, IBM, HP, Ericsson and so on, that we must have one place where all the tops of these companies are in one place where innovation and knowledge transfer with young people can happen. Post graduates, new companies and all in one place, but this is the first with Microsoft where they can show their achievements," Gyntautas Zintelis, vice rector of Kaunas University of Technology told TBT.
The "hyper competitive" market of IT specialists would also find the center useful, Glodas said, because there are too many IT workers in the Baltic market who are not aware of how to expand.
"The Baltic market is very small and very fierce competition over the same piece and we want them to have the possibility, the ideas and capabilities that would be marketable all across the world. Without lots of upfront investment, they will have a testing and demo environment."
"To have a place where we can test our partner solutions, test them, develop them further and help foreign exports," he said.
Despite the crisis, Tomek Bochenek, Microsoft's vice president for sales and marketing for the CEE region, told TBT the company is "just as optimistic as before" and plans to roll out a number of innovation centers in the near future.
Innovation centers are intended to engage clients and potential new customers who are unaware of the software.
"Our products are the building blocks of the solution 's on their own, it is not a solution. We need professionals to use them to find a solution, particularly with e-governance solutions," Glodas said.
One of the aims of the center from Microsoft's perspective is to inform clients of the need for authentic copies of software.
"Intellectual property is the heart of the knowledge economy because it is a market where skills and innovation are the key differentiators. We are committed to working with governments and institutions in the public sector to help spread the message of the benefits of legal, genuine software. With estimates suggesting that 69 per cent of all Microsoft software in use in 2005 was counterfeit, Central and Eastern Europe has some of the highest rates worldwide," a press release said.
