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Microsoft urges

schools, colleges

to benefit from

special packages

KARACHI: Microsoft Regional Education Manager Jawad Redha here Tuesday urged the Pakistani schools and colleges to benefit from lucrative incentives the software giant offers to them.

Briefing the newsmen about the salient features of Microsoft's Gulf and Eastern Mediterranean (GEM) Academic Agreement for Pakistani schools and colleges, he said the company offers up to 97 percent discount to them on its latest computer programmes.

"Microsoft GEM-Academic Agreement is an annual licensing programme especially created to address the unique needs of primary and secondary education institutions, by providing a low-cost annual subscription plan to run legal Microsoft software," Jawad explained.

GEM-Academic agreement is applicable to all government-approved public and private schools and colleges in Pakistan," he added.

GEM-Academic agreement includes the following Microsoft platform products: Office Standard/Professional Editions, Office Macintosh Edition Works Standard, Windows Upgrades, Back Office Server Client Access License (CAL), Encarta Reference Suite & Online, Visual Studio Professional Edition, and Office Starts Here Step by Step Interactive by Press.

All of these products are available for a 12-month period at approximate cost of Rs 2,900 per computer, whereas the retail value of the software is over Rs 75,000, Jawed said.

At the end of the agreement (12-month period), the buyers have three options: (i) renew the license for another 12 months with rights to use the latest available versions of the products, (ii) cancel out of the annual subscription model by purchasing upgrades, or (iii) remove the software from their machines.

Microsoft Front Page, Microsoft Project and Microsoft Windows Starts Here by Microsoft Press, Microsoft Windows NT Work station Starts Here by Microsoft Press, and Microsoft Web publishing Step by Step Interactive by Microsoft Press are also available at nominal extra cost under this agreement.

"The schools and colleges are thus able to run the most up-to-date Microsoft software legally for a very nominal fee, providing students with the hands on experience needed to advance their information technology (IT) skills".

The teaching institutions will also benefit from low cost administration, easy subscription plan on a per PC or Macintosh basis, and flexible, affordable scheme that supports small to large institutions.

GEM-Academic Agreement is available through four selected Microsoft Authorised Education Resellers including M/s. Sysnet Pakistan Ltd, International Office Products (IOP, OCLITS and Infotrain.

Speaking on the occasion, Business Development Manager in Pakistan Kamran Iqbal said Microsoft has offered drastic discounts for students and teachers, to contribute to the growth and development of young IT market in Pakistan.

The copies of Microsoft Office 2000 Professional are now available to Pakistani students and institutions at a price of Rs 4,900 compared to the worldwide price of over Rs 25,000, under the company's Student Licensing Scheme.

In addition, Microsoft Visual Studio (MVS), which sells for over Rs 60,000 in retail market is also available at Rs 4,900 for Pakistani students under the same programme, giving a discount of over 90 percent.

The MVS, contains the latest versions of Visual C++, Visual Basic Professional, Visual J++ and Interdev Tools. All this software can be used to write world-class software products.

"This (MVS) package is designed for Pakistani students to use the latest tools for writing software that are being used in developed countries like United States, Germany and Japan," Kamran said and hoped the reduced prices will bring the legal and supported software within the reach of the academic community.

The software giant sees great potential in Pakistan and is increasing its local presence, Kamran said. It has already established retail distributors in major cities and is now in the process of setting up and office in Karachi.

Microsoft is committed to the long-term success of the IT industry in Pakistan, he reiterated.ÑAPP