Microsoft Announces the “New Efficiency” in High Tech and Electronics

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 27, 2009 — Responding to today’s global economic downturn, Microsoft Corp.’s high-tech and electronics industry partners and customers have been able to leverage the innovative application of new information technologies to gain competitive advantage through improved operational efficiency, better value-chain collaboration and stronger customer relationships.

Today, a new generation of business solutions is transforming IT into a strategic asset that makes it possible for high-tech and electronics manufacturers to cut costs without crippling customer service or constraining work-force creativity and effectiveness. A new generation of business solutions is eliminating the barriers between systems and applications, and automating routine tasks so IT professionals can focus on high-value work that is aligned to strategic priorities. These technologies also help high-tech organizations reduce risk, improve security and drive down support costs.

For example, Dell is planning to upgrade 100,000 desktops and portable computers to the Windows 7 operating system to reduce desktop management costs and enhance data security. Dell expects that Windows 7 will help the company reduce the time required to update and test software images, strengthen operating system security and improve operating system performance. New features will help IT staff deploy software and resolve user problems faster.

Dell anticipates that results and benefits will include a 50 percent reduction of software imaging work, a 25 percent reduction in support costs, better data and network protection, and better performance and support for portable devices.

“Dell has been an early beta customer of Windows 7 and has hundreds of internal pilot deployments. We expect to move to a broader rollout now that the code has been officially released,” said Takis Petropoulos, global IT manager, Systems Management and User-Centric Solutions at Dell. “Our customers have expressed excitement for the operating system, and through this early access, we have developed extensive experience that we are capturing and making available to them via consulting services. We look forward to working with Microsoft to help make Windows 7 a success.”

Windows 7: From the Desktop to the Data Center

Windows 7 provides highly secure Internet-based anywhere access to enterprise data. Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, unified communications, collaboration and social computing capabilities can help cut travel and other costs and support greater collaboration and team productivity. Microsoft offers familiar tools that allow everyone from product designers and plant-floor operators to supply chain personnel and customer sales representatives to succeed in an environment of ever tighter product life cycles and changing consumer demands.

Dell, a worldwide IT solutions provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, for example, is committed to providing its enterprise customers with innovative Microsoft Exchange Server solutions for efficient, cost-effective communications. With the upcoming launch of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Dell has positioned itself to help customers take advantage of new solutions and features that can deliver greater cost efficiencies, increase productivity and improve communications.

Meeting Today’s Demographic Challenge at Intel

Changing demographics also are changing the way high-tech and electronics companies do business. The high-tech work force is more global than ever and requires knowledge-management capabilities to accelerate the productivity of new employees. Solutions that are familiar and easy-to-use are needed to help the next generation of workers ramp up at a very fast pace.

In early deployment at Intel Corporation, for example, Windows 7 together with Intel technologies is delivering IT cost efficiencies and increased employee productivity via improved manageability, scalability and performance. Intel and Microsoft architects have collaborated to deliver new business features in Windows 7, including shorter boot, startup and shutdown times, better power management, easier desktop deployment, and out-of-band (wireless) management.

“Today’s economic storm is severely testing high-tech and electronics companies as well as other manufacturers worldwide,” said Sanjay Ravi, worldwide managing director, High Tech and Electronics, Microsoft. “High-tech companies must achieve greater operational efficiencies, using IT to drive down costs while driving up global work-force productivity and increasing cash flow. To survive and thrive in today’s global economy, firms increasingly will have to work in a high-performance business network of partners, customers and consumers, focusing on five key business imperatives: grow customer relationships across the customer and consumer network, accelerate innovation, develop dynamic and resilient supply networks, improve operations, and drive corporate performance and compliance.”

The New Efficiency for the “New Normal”

After years of economic expansion fueled by unrealistic rates of consumption and unsustainable levels of private debt, the global economy has reset at a lower baseline level of activity. Today, people borrow less, save more and spend with much greater caution.

Despite the challenges posed by the global economic reset and the transition to this “new normal,” there are encouraging signs that growth may resume in many parts of the world next year. Helping to drive that growth, the global industry is entering a period of technology-driven transformation that will see a surge in productivity and a flowering of innovation.

The new efficiency will not only help companies respond to today’s economic reality, it will lay the foundation for systems and solutions that connect people to information and applications, as well as to other people in new ways. The result will be a wave of innovative products and services that will jump-start economic growth as companies deliver breakthroughs that solve old problems and serve as the catalyst for new businesses and even new industries.

About Microsoft’s High Tech and Electronics Manufacturing Group

Microsoft’s High Tech and Electronics Manufacturing Group strives to help people from high-tech and electronics manufacturing companies innovate new and better products faster and cheaper, increase collaboration across the manufacturing value chain, improve sales and customer service, and streamline plant-floor operations with visibility from the shop floor to the top floor. Working with key partners, Microsoft offers an integrated set of solutions to help companies handle their most difficult challenges. The company’s technology solutions enable people to meet global demands, increase quality and reduce costs in new ways throughout the value chain. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/hightech.

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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