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40. Microsoft UK

• Head of IT: Robert Ford, IT Director for EMEA
• Industry: Communications and IT services
• Website: www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx

Microsoft is the largest software company in the world so it's hardly surprising that the company takes internal IT seriously and that it serves a demanding audience.

Global CIO Tony Scot runs a team of about 4000, serving a company with 91,000 staff. In an interview with CIO UK, Scott said that he has focused on driving efficiency in IT spending, in ensuring business continuity and minimising risk. He is also a fan of software as a service.

In April 2010, Indian giant Infosys said it will manage internal IT services for Microsoft globally. Infosys said the deal would see streamlined implementation processes, simplified support and lowered costs be deploying... Windows 7 and other latest-generation Microsoft programs. The arrangement covers 450 locations in 104 countries and includes provision for implementing ISO 20000 and ITSM Processes. Infosys will be rewarded based on outcomes in order to provide Microsoft with the ability to align costs with "business variables and demand".

"Infosys demonstrated that it understood our transformational goals by introducing a flexible and innovative end-to-end approach to manage our support infrastructure," said Jim DuBois, Microsoft General Manager of Service Management, in a prepared statement.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Microsoft UK is run largely on Microsoft technologies and those of partners like SAP. The company has had a UK office for 27 years and in 1997 built a major research and development centre in Cambridge. It employs about 1500 staff on total with local headquarters in Reading and satellites in Edinburgh, Dublin and Manchester.

The company has of course made its fortune on the back of the PC and client/server era of business and personal productivity software. That kingdom is now under siege from Google and a sea of other internet-centric companies but Microsoft is responding by building out cloud computing capabilities of its own, notably through a new mega-datacentre in Dublin.

It is also seeking very different new markets and in April 2010 announced a partnership with Ford on electric car software.

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