Microsoft starts drive to create 100+ commercial apps in six months

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Microsoft India launched a one-of-its-kind contest for independent software vendors (ISVs) and technology start-ups that is expected to result in the creation of over 100 applications (apps) and solutions for businesses and governments in six months.

The contest is supported by an elite panel of organizations including National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Government of India, NASSCOM, TiE, Nokia, Nokia App Campus, Intel and BarrierBreak.

ISVs and technology start-ups can win nine awards in four categories - Enterprise, MSME, Government Enablement and Citizen Services. Special credit will be given to apps and solutions that are accessible to differently-abled people and/or are created to promote social good. An NIC-backed, special award is earmarked for the ‘Best solution for social good using Open Gov Data'.

Fifty-six Indian government departments and ministries recently opened their data sets to the public and NIC is encouraging ISVs to develop applications using these data sets.

Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman, Microsoft Corp. (India) Pvt Ltd, said: "With the proliferation of devices and cloud-based services, governments, businesses and other organizations are seeking to interact with customers, partners and other stakeholders securely and reliably. There is an opportunity to create commercial apps beyond the traditional ERP and other transactional systems."

"Code for Honor will kick-start the creation of apps and solutions that are scalable, reliable and secure and that can be used over public, private and hybrid clouds," he added.

Code for Honor, the contest, will run over six months and is open to over 5000 ISVs and tech start-ups in India. Any Indian ISV or tech start-up that is less than eight years old is eligible to participate in the contest. They may develop apps and solutions in four broad categories:

1. Enterprise apps and solutions - these could be in the areas of HR, Finance, Marketing, Sales etc.

2. Micro, small and medium enterprise apps and solutions - these may be in all the areas of operations of a small company and the apps and solutions need to be simple to deploy and cost effective.

3. Government Enablement - these could be applications that help government departments improve their internal operations.

4. Citizen services - these can be apps and solutions that help make government services more accessible to citizens and that benefit a large section of society.