REDMOND, Wash., and BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 28, 2002 — Onyx®
Software Corp. (Nasdaq: ONXS), worldwide leader in successful CRM, and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced that the two companies are expanding their multiyear global alliance to include three additional vertical markets. As a result of the expanded relationship, Onyx and Microsoft will jointly pursue CRM opportunities in healthcare, telecommunications and government, in addition to financial services.
The collaboration between the two companies consists of joint marketing and sales of Onyx’s CRM solution on the Microsoft platform. A key tenet of the offering is Onyx’s completely Web services-based architecture, which allows greater ease of integration and enhanced interoperability among disparate platforms and applications. Onyx Enterprise CRM is optimized for Microsoft®
.NET, and the offering is available today and implemented at joint Onyx and Microsoft customers.
“The caliber of enterprises that have signed on with our relationship demonstrates the significant benefits of combining the complementary strengths of Microsoft’s platform with Onyx’s CRM expertise,”
said Brent Frei, CEO and co-founder of Onyx Software.
“We can deliver CRM success across multiple vertical markets, based on fast, cost-effective implementation and widespread deployment across various departments within an enterprise.”
“Onyx is part of a great team of industry partners that are helping us deliver industry-specific applications on the Microsoft platform,”
said Sanjay Parthasarathy, vice president of Platform Strategy and Partners at Microsoft.
“Together, we are delivering a fully scalable, reliable, easy-to-integrate solution that brings a greater level of business agility to our mutual customers.”
Expanded Focus Builds on Success in Financial Services
In financial services, the long-standing Onyx and Microsoft relationship has resulted in a number of high-profile CRM implementations, including deployments at Prudential Financial Inc., State Street Global Advisors, US Bancorp, American Express Co., Wachovia/Evergreen, Dreyfus and others. One joint Onyx and Microsoft customer, Australian financial services company Suncorp, already has successfully implemented what is believed to be the largest Web-based CRM deployment in financial services, with more than 5,000 users on a single server.
Building upon their success in the financial services industry, Onyx and Microsoft are expanding their relationship to offer industry-specific solutions to the healthcare, telecommunications and government markets and broaden their existing efforts in financial services beyond capital markets to include banking and insurance.
As part of the solution-selling methodology being deployed by Microsoft, Onyx will be one of Microsoft’s key CRM partners and part of the company’s vertical industry solution maps. Joint sales between the two companies will involve Microsoft’s Industry Solutions Group, which focuses on Microsoft’s largest enterprise accounts across key vertical industries; Microsoft’s Network Services Provider Group, which focuses on the global telecommunications industry; and Microsoft’s geographic sales organizations focused on midsize enterprises.
Web Services Simplify Integration and Interoperability
The solution takes advantage of the XML-based Web services infrastructure of the Microsoft platform to simplify integration and enhance interoperability with other business systems. As customers increasingly demand new and existing systems to work together to help streamline business processes, all three tiers of the Onyx Enterprise CRM platform support XML to unlock critical business information. The business services tier can be published as a Web service, either in its entirety or as separate components.
Web services is a standards-based methodology that reduces the cost and complexity of building new applications and integrating existing applications. Onyx is a leader in offering a Web services solution, and running Onyx software with Microsoft .NET will enable business process customization and broad integration with legacy applications.
The solution is already implemented in various locations around the globe, with more than 200 customers taking advantage of Onyx’s fully Web-services-enabled product. Onyx Enterprise CRM offers full Unicode support and efficiently scales up to 57,000 users, as demonstrated in a recent formal performance benchmark. Onyx already delivers its CRM solutions across the entire breadth of the Microsoft Windows®
2000 Server family: Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.
About Onyx Software
Onyx Software Corp. (Nasdaq: ONXS), worldwide leader in successful CRM, offers a fast, cost-effective, usable solution that shares critical information among employees, customers and partners through three role-specific, Web services-based portals. The Onyx approach delivers real-world success by aligning CRM technology with business objectives, strategies and processes. Companies rely on Onyx across multiple departments to create a superior customer experience and a profitable bottom line. Onyx serves customers worldwide in a variety of industries, including financial services, healthcare, high technology and the public sector. Customers include Agile Software Corp., Credit Suisse, Delta Dental Plans of California and Pennsylvania, Dreyfus Corp., Fluke Networks, Inc., Ingenix Health Intelligence, The Regence Group, The Seattle Mariners and Suncorp. More information can be found at 888-ASK-ONYX, [email protected] or http://www.onyx.com/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the potential success of the expanded Onyx and Microsoft relationship. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the time the statements are made and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. The words
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believe,
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expect,
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intend,
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anticipate,
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variations of such words, and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Factors that could affect Onyx’s actual results include, but are not limited to, the
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Important Factors That May Affect Our Business, Our Results of Operations and Our Stock Price
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described in our annual report on form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2002. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements that speak only as to the date of this release. Onyx undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Onyx is a registered trademark of Onyx Software Corp. in the United States and other countries.
Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
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