The software that refuses to die       
June 30, 2008
Source:  The Hindu

Monday marks the ‘expiry’ date for Windows XP; but many users still prefer it to the anointed successor, Vista. 

Bangalore: When it was launched in October 2001, the new version of Microsoft’s operating system for personal computers, Windows XP was so named for the new eXPerience it provided. 

Tomorrow, XP will spell eXPiry. Microsoft will stop selling the XP version to retailers and PC manufacturers from June 30. They have been asked to stop preloading XP on their products from that date. There is a small exception made for low cost platforms, which will be able to continue loading the stripped down ‘home’ version of XP for another 6 months. 

But to the rest of us, Microsoft seems to be saying: “We gave you a bigger, better version called Vista, more than 18 months ago. So start learning to love it — or lump it.” But lay users as well as corporate customers say: “Thanks, but no thanks! We don’t care for Vista: it is bloated and sluggish; it irritates us with a hundred promptings; it doesn’t work with most of our peripheral printers, scanners, CD/DVD drives; and it takes so long to start or stop (unless we do a costly hardware upgrade), that it is driving us crazy.” 

There are lots of good things in Vista: multiple tagged browser pages; a whole new 3-D look and feel... but the canny Indian ‘janatha’ user hasn’t found it to be ‘paisa vasool’ and in any case XP still works fine. 

As PCs become smaller, lighter, less power-hungry, what people want is a smaller, quicker PC software that lets you get on the Web — which today houses a lot of their tools and files — fast. Vista is not it. 

“XP will die at the hands of a misguided killer: Microsoft,” said the Web magazine, ITWorld.com a few days ago — and many in the industry agree. 

Over 140 million copies of Vista have been sold, says Microsoft; but analysts Forrester found in April that only half the enterprise world has planned an upgrade to Vista. 

The entire Intel organisation (a key Microsoft partner) has decided to stick with XP. So what can the rest of us do? Microsoft has already announced that the next iteration after Vista will be Windows 7 — possibly in 2009. If we want to continue using XP on our machines, no one can really stop us. The canny Indian reseller and assembler community will find ways to support us, with or without Microsoft help. We can continue doing our computing, the XP way, till we see what Windows 7 offers, leapfrogging over Vista in the process.

DQE, US co to take up $100-m projects     
June 30, 2008 
SOURCE: BL

DQ Entertainment International (DQE), an animation development company, and the US-based production and distribution company MoonScoop Group have joined hands to take up projects worth $100 million. The companies would co-produce at least five TV series and two feature films for worldwide distribution. The alliance seeks to release at least one TV series or film each year of the agreement that would last till 2012. In a press release issued here, Mr Tapaas Chakravarti, Cha irman and Chief Executive Officer of DQE, said the alliance would also focus on new media business development such as broadband channels.

Polaris chief sees 27% dip in gross salary     
June 30, 2008 
SOURCE: BL

Chennai, Mr Arun Jain, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Polaris Software Lab Ltd, saw his gross remuneration come down by 27 per cent to Rs 85 lakh in 2007-08 compared with Rs 1.08 crore in the previous year. This includes Rs 20 lakh (Rs 51.25 lakh) towards bonus, which was calculated based on performance criteria determined by the company’s shareholders at the annual general meeting held in August 2006.

Some of the company’s directors too got lower commission in 2007-08. For instance, the commission of Mr Abhay Agarwal dropped to Rs 3.50 lakh during the year compared with Rs 4.98 lakh in the previous year. Similarly, Mr Arvind Kumar’s commission dropped to Rs 3.50 lakh (Rs 4.63 lakh). No stock options grants were provided during 2007-08 for directors compared with 10,000 given to six of them in the previous year, says the company’s 2007-08 annual report.

For the year ended March 31, 2008, Polaris’ net profit was Rs 73 crore (Rs 101 crore) on revenues of Rs 1,117 crore (Rs 1,038 crore).

A notable feature in 2007-08 was increased profitability in Polaris’ subsidiary that provides software for the retail industry. Polaris Retail InfoTech Ltd (PRIL) achieved a net profit of Rs 2.02 crore (Rs 78 lakh). 

PRIL, through its products Retail Excel and Smart Store, has reached to 15,000 point of sale counters across India. It is foraying into international markets starting with West Asia and Africa, Mr Jain said.

Polaris Retail won new clients such as Vishal Retail, Godrej Agrovet, REI Agro, Masper, DSCL Hariyali Kisan Bazar and Indian Terrain. “We expanded Polaris Retail to the West Asian market last year and this year, we are looking to expand PRIL to Asia Pacific and Africa markets as well,” Mr Jain told Business Line.

The Intellect platform contributed around 23 per cent of annual revenues. This is against the product business of more than 30 per cent projected in 2002 when Polaris and OrbiTech Solutions, a Citibank technology group company, were merged. Launched in 2004, Intellect was the enhanced version of Polaris’ OrbiOne suite of banking products. OrbiOne was the proprietary product of OrbiTech.

In the last five years, the ‘Intellect business’ has grown to Rs 220 crore from Rs 60 crore.

Mr Jain said post OrbiTech merger, Polaris appointed McKinsey to understand the global market players and ‘right positioning’ of the product in the market place. The consultant recommended that ‘Legacy Modernisation’ (migration of legacy systems to modern technology) offered a good business opportunity as banks and financial institutions would need to spend on this.

On the basis of the recommendation, Polaris shifted its focus to position Intellect among top 20 global banks in the world to create “lighthouse implementations” — Intellect implementations in leading banks — such as Lloyds Bank in UK, National Bank of Abu Dhabi in West Asia, Citibank in London, Deutsche Leasing in Germany and Shinsei in Japan.