AS Philippine businesses pursue their respective automation process, Microsoft Philippines has tapped major information technology (IT) reseller Word Systems Inc. (WSI) to push the software giant’s electronic software delivery (ESD) product to the local market.
Irene Chua, WSI vice president for consumer-commercial division, said the company is bullish about its partnership with Microsoft, as it has been successful in the Philippines since it started selling the earlier versions of Windows operating system.
“There is huge potential for the ESD business, which is expected to grow 10 percent yearly to gain between 10 percent to 20 percent of the Microsoft retail-box business. We project a revenue between P20 million to P40 million within the next five years, which is why it’s important for resellers to kick-start their ESD program and be the first to market with us,” declared Chua in a news statement.
Chua said businesses will benefit in using ESD as it eliminates inventory costs, freight charges and warehouse-stocking fees resulting in lower software costs for customers. Moreover, she said all featured Microsoft products are always available and never out of stock. She said IT retailers don’t need fees or additional resources to offer ESD, as these companies already have sales personnel promoting Microsoft products. Chua said the selling process is simple, as customers can purchase Microsoft software through their preferred resellers, who in turn issue a purchase order to WSI.
WSI then logs the order through the ESD portal, and once this cycle is completed, the customer receives the product key at their authorized e-mail address within the same or next business day.
These ESD products can be used by customers for a wide range of IT equipment, including desktops, laptops, tablets and even smartphones. Meanwhile, this gives distributors a greater avenue to servicing the needs of their business and consumer clients.
The Microsoft products that are available nationwide through ESD are Office 365 Home and Personal, Microsoft Office 2016 (Home and Student, Home & Business for PC and Mac), Office Professional, Visio Professional and Standard, Project Professional and Standard, as well as Windows OS (Windows 10 Home and Pro), among others. Chua said WSI’s 35-year track record in the industry as being the main reason Microsoft chose their company for this endeavor, and expressed confidence that WSI can grow the ESD business just as they have nurtured other Microsoft products in the past.