Microsoft and Infosys Enable IT-Led Business Transformation

BANGALORE, India — Nov. 29, 2005 — In continuation of the joint investment announced by Infosys Technologies Limited and Microsoft Corp. in November 2004 on an information technology (IT) transformation initiative called Catalytic IT, Infosys and Microsoft today unveiled the Catalytic IT concept center at the Infosys campus in Bangalore. The portfolio of solutions and services under Catalytic IT enables enterprise businesses and their employees to realize a simplified, flexible IT environment that lowers the total cost of ownership and enables rapid change and innovation.

The Catalytic IT concept center was inaugurated today by Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International. Also present were Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft Corporation India Private Ltd., and Kris Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer of Infosys Technologies.

This state-of-the-art concept center has been established to provide customers with an informative and interactive experience wherein they can envision, architect and evaluate Catalytic IT solutions.

The Catalytic IT solution and services suite addresses four pivotal IT business issues: legacy modernization, connected business, infrastructure optimization and enterprise resource planning (ERP) consolidation. Over 30 intellectual property assets, service offerings, blueprints and award-winning solutions enable transformation.

Infosys’ infrastructure optimization solutions helped Johnson Controls Inc., a global market leader in automotive systems and facility management and control, improve its operational efficiency by migrating to the Microsoft® platform. The migration was effected across multiple business units spread across North America, South America, Latin America and Canada.

Mark D. Schoeppel, vice president of Global IT Infrastructure at Johnson Controls, said, “We had approximately 20,000 desktops and 250 servers across the Americas region on a variety of diverse solutions. The execution of this regional migration project was key to completing our global Active Directory® environment. With many of our plants being 24×7 JIT (just-in-time) production facilities, we required minimal or no downtime during migration.” Talking about the solution benefits, Schoeppel said, “Infosys’ innovative network-centric migration solution has enabled us to standardize on the Microsoft Windows® operating environment across regions with minimal disruption to business. This solution has improved our IT responsiveness while lowering migration and management costs.”

Infosys created a Microsoft ASP.NET Web-based solution for SCI, a U.S. $1.86 billion death care services industry leader. The transformation, over two years, started with a small proof of concept to validate the Microsoft .NET architecture and solution, and culminated with a robust .NET application being used by almost 1,600 locations in North America. Commenting on the transformation initiative, John Del Mixon, managing director of IT at SCI, said, “The concepts of Catalytic IT provide a powerful approach to transformation. The transformation program at SCI will result in an estimated IT savings of over U.S. $4 million per annum.”

Catalytic IT provides a self-funding and evolutionary approach to transformation. Carl Greiner, senior vice president at Ovum, said, “CIOs are looking for pragmatic and incremental approaches for streamlining their IT organizations and creating better business alignment. Such transformations must deliver predictable and measurable returns so that ongoing support is garnered and realized savings help fund the ongoing effort.”

Catalytic IT combines Infosys’ consulting, research, intellectual property and project methods with the latest Microsoft application platform, which includes Windows Server System™, the Microsoft Office system and Visual Studio® development tools. Through Catalytic IT, enterprises can enhance stakeholder intimacy, attain product or service leadership, and achieve operational excellence. More information about Catalytic IT can be found online at http://www.infosys.com/technology.

“At Microsoft we remain committed to establishing new benchmarks in technological innovation that help accelerate business results for customers,” Courtois said. “Through our latest joint initiative with Infosys on Catalytic IT, customers can leverage the strengths of both companies in transforming their business. Infosys’ strong expertise on Microsoft technologies combined with its commitment to demonstrating compelling business value to customers makes it a leading Microsoft global partner.”

Gopalakrishnan said, “Investment in technology solutions that bring business excellence to our clients is an absolute priority at Infosys. Catalytic IT is testimony to this. It enables our customers to leverage IT as a catalyst in business transformation. Our strong relationship with Microsoft brings together the innovative technologies of Microsoft and a broad range of solutions and services from Infosys to accelerate our clients’ competitive impact.”

About Infosys Technologies Limited

Infosys (NASDAQ: INFY) defines, designs and delivers IT enabled business solutions. These provide our clients with strategic differentiation and operational superiority, thereby increasing their competitiveness. Each solution is delivered with the industry-benchmark Infosys Predictability that gives our clients peace of mind. With Infosys, they are assured of a transparent business partner, business-IT alignment with flexibility, world-class processes, speed of execution and the power to stretch their IT budget by leveraging the Global Delivery Model that Infosys pioneered. Infosys has over 46,000 employees in over 30 offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.infosys.com.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, and our reports on Form 6-K. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company.

About .NET

.NET is the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect information, people, systems and devices through software. Integrated across the Microsoft platform, .NET technology provides the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage and use connected, security-enhanced solutions with Web services. .NET-connected solutions enable businesses to integrate their systems more rapidly and in a more agile manner and help them realize the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any device.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About Microsoft India

Microsoft Corporation India Private Ltd. is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. USA. It has had a presence in India since 1990 and currently has offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.

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