Microsoft Announces Social Enterprise Alliance

REDMOND, Wash. — May 27, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the Social Enterprise Alliance, a strategic collaboration between Microsoft Gold Certified Partners Telligent Systems Inc. and speakTECH to deliver an integrated social networking solution for customers in the manufacturing and consumer goods sectors. The alliance will launch the Social Enterprise Solution, which includes platform and application products and services that enable companies to connect to and leverage key customer communities through social networking and analytics technologies.

The Social Enterprise Alliance enables manufacturing and consumer goods customers to achieve deeper insight and stronger connections to their customer, partner and supplier communities. Unlike point solutions built on rigid platforms and lacking value-added services, the Social Enterprise Solution delivers customized workstreams integrating Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft’s extensible collaboration and workflow platform; powerful community and analytics provided by Telligent’s Community Server enterprise social computing platform; and expert design, user experience and systems integration services from speakTECH.

“The Social Enterprise Alliance with Telligent and speakTECH demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to recognizing partners that collaborate to offer a higher level of solutions and services offerings that are more relevant to customer needs,” said Greg Urquhart, general manager, U.S. ISV and National System Integrators, U.S. Partners Group at Microsoft. “By integrating Telligent’s Community Server platform with speakTECH’s integration and services expertise — all of which leverage the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server platform — companies have a better solution to connect with their customers, partners, suppliers and investors.”

“Manufacturing and consumer goods companies have a unique opportunity to put the power of social computing to work across all aspects of their business, improving engagement and collaboration of employees, partners, distributors and customers,” said Rob Howard, founder and CTO of Telligent. “Holistic social computing solutions enable the agile and innovative enterprise.”

“Companies are finding the return on investment for social media campaigns to be aggressively outpacing traditional marketing strategies,” said Aaron Sloman, CEO of speakTECH. “It’s driving a transformation where traditional marketing departments need to re-tool as interactive marketing agencies.”

About Telligent

Telligent is a leader in enterprise software for online communities and collaboration. Telligent’s two flagship offerings, Community Server and Community Server Evolution provide fully integrated platforms that utilize social computing to enhance customer relationships and brand engagement, increase ROI, provide channels for customer insight and feedback, improve employee collaboration, increase knowledge management, and foster ideation. With its proven platform, Telligent empowers collaboration for many of the world’s largest brands, including Dell, Electronic Arts, Intel, Microsoft, and Reader’s Digest. For more information, visit Telligent.com.

About speakTECH

Founded in 2005, speakTECH is an interactive design and technology firm that specializes in uniting technology, riveting design and interactive experience into powerful, world-class business solutions. speakTECH competencies span consultancy, design and development services aimed at improving operational efficiencies, transferring skills to client personnel, and enhancing customer experience. speakTECH solutions are often built on technology that customers already own, such as Microsoft Office and components of the Windows Platform. speakTECH is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and National Systems Integrator. Learn more by visiting http://www.speakTECH.com/cool.

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.

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