Microsoft has appointed a senior executive to a new
position in Europe to improve relationships with governments across
the continent, a move apparently designed to counter Europe's
growing interest in open-source software.
Jonathan Murray has been appointed "national technology officer"
and will be based in Zurich. Until about two weeks ago he oversaw
sales to Microsoft's top 50 business customers as vice president of
global accounts.
The new job is part sales and part "evangelism". Murray will be
"building better relationships in the public sector across Europe",
a Microsoft spokeswoman said, adding that Peter Moore, chief
technology officer and general manager of technical sales, plays a
similar role in Asia.
The popularity of open-source products in Europe and Asia is a
challenge for Microsoft. In Germany, for example, the city of
Munich in May decided to install Linux and open-source office
applications on the 14,000 computers in its public
administration.
In China, Sun Microsystems and China Standard Software have
agreed to develop desktop computers based on Sun's Linux-based Java
Desktop System that could eventually see the software installed on
hundreds of millions of computers.
"It is clear that Microsoft has a problem in the public sector
worldwide. They have to convince people that it is politically
correct to buy software from commercial software firms," said Rob
Helm, research director at Directions on Microsoft, an independent
research company.
Microsoft has been pretty outspoken in its fight against Linux
and open-source products in the US.
"It sounds like Murray will be taking that fight to Europe where
it is particularly hot right now," Helm said. "Murray certainly has
as much experience as anybody in trying to deal with large
customers. It is an important dimension in Microsoft's fight
against open source."
Barbara Gordon, formerly vice president of the global sales
organization at Sun, has replaced Murray as vice president of
global accounts.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service