MICROSOFT TRIED out and liked an open source software technology developed by a Filipino company - D3 Systems Inc. The software, Yeh Ba*, is an instant messaging and short messaging system (SMS) service that will be fitted in to Microsoft Outlook to interact with users with mobile phone users using instant messaging or SMS and vice versa, according to Roger Delgado, vice president for technical operations of D3.

Bill Hiff, general manager for platform strategy of Microsoft from their Richmond, Washington headquarters, visited recently the Philippines last June to look to forging deals with local software companies that are using open source technologies to develop applications for the Windows platform in an effort to strengthen ties with the “open source community” and inked the deal with D3 Systems Inc. instead.

Wilfredo de la Cruz, president of D3 Systems, said the deal between D3 and Microsoft involves no direct investment from both companies and revenues will be generated through Microsoft's use of the company's “system gateway”.

Yeh Ba* works on other existing instant mobile messaging platforms currently in use in the market and is being tested upon at the National Computer Center laboratories and D3 had been actively looking for partners outside the Philippines. It has been downloaded and used in countries like India, Bangladesh and Brunei a month after the software was made available on the Internet last December 2005.

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