T&T a key market for Microsoft

“Cloud first, mobile first,” Barry Ridgway says emphatically when I ask what Microsoft’s priority strategy is in the Caribbean and Latin America.

“It’s the mission that Satya Nadella has outlined, and it’s our primary strategy in the region.”

Ridgway is new to the role of vice-president of the sales, marketing and services group of Microsoft Latin America, but he’s no novice at the company.

He’s an 18-year veteran at Microsoft and has taken his first year to properly understand the markets now under his care.

Last week Ridgway made his first visit to T&T after an earlier trip was postponed and his first mission was to be present at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Microsoft and its community partner Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri) for the establishment of Microsoft’s first Innovation Centre in the Caribbean.

Microsoft has established 110 centres in 80 countries throughout the world, 20 of which are in Latin America. This is the first centre to be established in the Caribbean region. The Innovation Centre, scheduled for opening in August 2014, will offer capacity building opportunities to the whole Caribbean region.

“Latin America is a big growth engine for Microsoft,” says Ridgway, "and T&T is one of our biggest markets and a gateway for us to the Southern Caribbean.”

“Microsoft needs a strong hub to build partners who do well in T&T and in the region. We definitely see T&T as a platform for expanding our presence in the region.”

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