OREANDA-NEWS. June 22, 2012. A meeting between Andrey Kruglov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee, Head of the Department for Finance and Economics of Gazprom and Jean-Philippe Courtois, President of Microsoft International took place today as part of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2012.

The parties discussed the implementation of the Corporate License Agreement signed by Gazprom and Microsoft as well as appreciated the work being done.

The meeting reached an agreement on providing Gazprom with Microsoft Premier Support Services that would help improve the return on investments by Gazprom in the IT infrastructure. In addition, Gazprom Inform, an IT service subsidiary, will set up Gazprom Group Competence Center to deal with Microsoft technologies.

Andrey Kruglov and Jean-Philippe Courtois addressed the strategic cooperation related issues and expressed interest in further cooperation within the innovative technologies of the Skolkovo state-run project as well as in wider interaction to streamline Gazprom Group IT infrastructure.
Background

Microsoft is the global leader in the software business, IT services and solutions. The range of Microsoft products encompasses desktop and network operating systems, server applications for client-server environment, desktop business applications and office applications for customers, web tools, and many others.

In July 2011 Gazprom and Microsoft signed the Corporate License Agreement. The document stipulates special purchasing terms and conditions for the Microsoft software use rights in the scope that would meet demand of the entire Gazprom Group between 2011 and 2013. The Agreement considerably optimized the total cost of Microsoft software ownership by the Group.