Partner-TV: telling it like it is

Skinkers are the market leader in information broadcast technology. Their solutions ensure ShouldKnow information is delivered to audiences with visibility and impact; the right information, on the right device, at the right time.  

Steve caught up with Matteo Berlucchi to discuss how they worked with Microsoft Research to bring their information broadcast vision to the market.  His insight into how Microsoft carries out R&D is interesting and describes the approach as an "academic " style where work done inside Microsoft Research is more akin to that of a university than a technology company.  This means researchers are not driven by commercial goals but by academic results for example the number of papers they publish on their given subject. 

They needed to work with Microsoft Research because our guys had already done some of the work that Skinkers want to use.  The fact that MS Research is more academic based was beneficial because it meant that via their investor they could structure a mutually beneficial agreement that could unlock the intellectual property Microsoft Research held for use in a commercial venture.  In this example Skinkers paid for the rights to the technology in an equity stake but Matteo explains that deals with MS Research can also be structured on a royalty based agreement. 

Their integration with the Microsoft stack is very impressive from the Peer2Peer technologies they have used from MS Research through to Silverlight, SharePoint and MOM and it's great to hear him saying "Microsoft is changing". 

This is really interesting for me, because it shows how companies (and partners) can unlock some of the $9 billion worth of R&D that Microsoft invest every year and make money using it. 

To find out if Microsoft have researched something your company can use, it's worth checking out the Microsoft Research website.