“Europe is central to Microsoft
and we are investing in a shared future.”
Microsoft shares Europe’s vision of a future that is competitive, innovative and inclusive. We believe Europe has extraordinary potential thanks to its interconnectedness, educated work force, and diversity. Europe has had a defining influence on Microsoft’s evolution through the last decade. Today we operate in all EU Member States and elsewhere in Europe, having grown from 1,800 employees in 1998 to more than 16,300 today. The European Commission’s 2009 R&D Investment Scoreboard recognizes Microsoft as the No.2 R&D investor worldwide. In 2009 we invested more than €447m in R&D in European countries.
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CONTRIBUTING TO EUROPE'S ECONOMIC FUTURE
INVESTING IN CLOUD COMPUTING
We are working with our European partners and customers to drive cloud innovation, leveraging our extensive ‘ecosystem’, our Azure cloud platform and local investments including our $500m mega data centre in Dublin. Major European corporations, SMEs and public sector organizations are among the first customers for our cloud offerings. At the same time, we are working across the EU to establish the privacy, security and open standards needed to help Europe fully realise the opportunities of the cloud.
MICROSOFT ‘ECOSYSTEM’
The Microsoft ‘ecosystem’ is a large, diverse and inter-dependent system of organizations, from multi-nationals to SMEs, which build and sell ICT solutions using Microsoft’s platform, as well as open source and other products. Our European ‘ecosystem’ has 146,726 registered partners, directly employing 2 million people as developers, vendors, distributors and service providers. In 2009, companies in Microsoft’s EU ‘ecosystem’ made €120bn in revenue. They invested nearly €40bn locally by developing infrastructure, people, marketing services and R&D (see table below). In 2009, they contributed €119bn to national tax revenues.
For every €1 of revenue made by Microsoft, local EU partners make more than €9 and their products, revenue and know-how stay in Europe.
ENABLING EUROPE'S KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
INVESTING IN EU R&D AGENDA AND PARTNERING WITH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE STAKEHOLDERS
Microsoft supports EU R&D Investment agenda and partners with governments, industry and society to build opportunities and competitiveness in Europe.
- Microsoft employs some 1,800 R&D staff in 19 EU countries and by partnering with over 240 European universities and computer science institutes we support the next generation of European innovators, scientists and software engineers.
- We operate facilities for technology, innovation and software development across Europe, including in Cambridge, Vedbaek, and Aachen and we have joint Labs with INRIA, University of Trento, ETH Zurich and Barcelona Supercomputing Centre.
- We partner with NGOs to provide funding, software, equipment and training on a large scale. Together with Telecentre-Europe, a network of community-based skills training projects, Microsoft helps to promote digital inclusion of the 292 million Europeans.
MEETING EUROPE'S CHALLENGES AND AMBITIONS
Microsoft is working with European partners to use technology to help Europe face its challenges and achieve its ambitions.
- SKILLS & EDUCATION > We enable the use of the latest digital devices to meet the differing needs of students, teachers, parents and administrators.
- HEALTHCARE > We are creating online services and tools to cut costs and help people everywhere live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
- E-GOVERNMENT > We help modernize delivery of services to citizens and value to taxpayers.
- ENVIRONMENT > We help reduce the environmental impact through providing software and technology innovations.
As the following examples show, Microsoft is actively using cloud computing in Europe to help address the European societal challenges.
- HEALTH > Microsoft’s HealthVault is a security-enhanced online platform that provides caregivers with information they need. It also lets citizens monitor and manage their health.
- ENVIRONMENT > Microsoft and the European Environment Agency jointly developed Eye on Earth. This is a free and easy-to-use web tool for checking, comparing and leaving feedback on air and water quality across the EU. It also provides a measurable tool to help guide policy making.
EXAMPLES OF COLLABORATION & INVESTMENT IN EUROPE
Our strategy in Europe focuses on local achievement and global scaling. These are just some of the countless examples of collaboration and investment that are now gaining worldwide development opportunities & support.
Sopima’s Contract Bank provides an easy and scalable online way to manage contract creation, negotiations and reporting. Helsinki-based Sopima is a member of Microsoft’s BizSpark programme designed to help start-ups. Located in facilities provided by Technopolis, a BizSpark Partner that incubates tech entrepreneurs, by providing business environments and services.
A leading provider of CRM (customer relationship management) solutions, employing 80 people in the Czech Republic. It has been successfully serving international customers since 1996. Currently Sprinx Systems is launching a cloud-based CRM Tool developed on Windows Azure.
Founded in 1994, with offices in Madrid and Barcelona, Nextel provides IT and software engineering solutions to companies in the financial, industrial, telecommunications, Government and defense sectors. Its products and services are built on software from Microsoft as well as other vendors.
PrimeLife is a collaborative research project with the European Microsoft Innovation Centre in Aachen, funded by the European Commission, which brings sustainable privacy and identity management to future networks and services. PrimeLife advances the state of the art in the areas of human computer interfaces, policy languages, infrastructures and privacy-enhancing cryptography.
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Norwegian FAST is the leading global provider of enterprisesearch technologies, acquired by Microsoft in 2008. FAST’s flexible and scalable enterprise search platform allows vast amounts of data to be explored and assimilated. FAST works with 2,600 global customers and partners, including AOL, BASF, CitiGroup, Orange, Reed Elsevier and Siemens.
ON MICROSOFT’S COMMITMENT TO EUROPE:
“The European Union must be an ‘Innovation Union’, a fertile business environment where entrepreneurship flourishes, where small ideas can grow into big breakthroughs, and where the information economy is the growth engine for Europe. This strategy can only be realised when all industry players, both major or small, invest in and promote innovation and new technologies, such as cloud computing, fostering the sector’s growth and sharing the agenda for innovation and European success.”
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
ON MICROSOFT’S VISION:
“Leading innovation and a thriving knowledge economy will be a turn key in delivering against the EU 2020 agenda. Microsoft is a fully committed partner in helping realise this vision. As a big beneficiary and driver of Europe’s economy, we understand and welcome the responsibility of industry leadership, and will continue to make significant investment in European innovation, people and skills to accelerate the recovery and drive towards strong regional growth for the long-term.”
Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft