ICL and Microsoft Expand Global Alliance

LONDON, July 13, 1999 — ICL, the IT services company, has expanded its global alliance with Microsoft Corp. through a new global agreement that is expected to bring more than 1 billion in new business to ICL over the next five years. From interactive television to the Internet refrigerator, the alliance will deliver new Web-based technologies that simplify the way people live, work, learn and shop.

This latest development in ICL’s relationship with Microsoft stems from the success of the initial alliance launched in May 1998. The companies will now extend their collaboration to develop new Web- and smart card-based applications and establish five additional Solution Centres globally. These new applications, based on Microsoft’s enterprise solutions platform, will target corporate customers and focus on four new customer segments: electronic business, financial services, smart cards and secure systems.

The new Microsoft® -based applications will include technologies that bring the power of the Internet to consumers through digital interactive television. People will be able to bank, shop, play games and access educational and entertainment services through their television with information tailored to meet given preferences.

Banking services will be developed, enabling people to bank and trade shares how and when they want – whether by PC, television, personal organiser or mobile phone. Electronic business (e-commerce) applications will simplify commerce in the workplace and in the home. For the home, ICL applications already include the technology behind the Internet refrigerator, which enables groceries to be ordered online.

ICL will also establish another five Solution Centres in addition to the seven outlined in the original agreement to accelerate the development and deployment of applications using the Microsoft enterprise solutions platform. The centres will be located in: Gaborone, Botswana; Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; Pune, India; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

In addition, ICL will expand its Microsoft training programme to accredit 250 consultants as Microsoft Windows® Distributed interNet Application (Windows DNA) architecture developers and work with Microsoft to accredit up to 2,000 ICL sales personnel on the Microsoft enterprise solutions platform. The two companies will also undertake joint marketing and promotional activities.

“This is a major development in our relationship with Microsoft,” said Keith Todd, chief executive of ICL. “The potent mix of Microsoft technology with our expertise to provide enterprise systems to large corporations is a winning formula that has helped us achieve a record order book. We now aim to replicate this success across four new go-to-market sectors with the accent on leveraging both companies’ formidable Internet and smart card capabilities.

“The early fruit of this new relationship is coming to a television set near you. It will take the form of digital technologies that will enable people to shop, bank and access all the benefits of the Internet from their television. In addition, we’ll offer secure Web-based electronic-business solutions that will simplify the way organisations order and sell goods, helping to make the Internet a mainstream, indispensable tool for all types of business.”

“ICL and Microsoft, together, have helped many customers solve their business problems through the delivery of software applications and Solution Centres in the first year of the alliance,” said Jeff Raikes, group vice president, Worldwide Sales and Support at Microsoft. “We are excited to expand our alliance to the areas of e-commerce, financial services, smart cards and secure systems, which will provide us with even more solutions to help our customers meet their business objectives.”

The initial landmark alliance between ICL and Microsoft, announced in May 1998, was aimed at developing a new breed of IT applications that would run on the Microsoft enterprise solutions platform, targeting the retail, government, education and knowledge management sectors. It also aimed to train and certify 4,000 ICL staff members as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSEs) and Microsoft Certified Solution Developers (MCSDs) and open seven Solution Centres by May 2001.

“By any standards, our alliance with Microsoft has been a tremendous success,” said Paul Lynch, ICL’s director of the Microsoft Alliance. “During the past year, we launched a host of new Microsoft-based products and services, won hundreds of millions of pounds of new business, opened all seven Solution Centres and, so far, have registered more than 2,000 people and certified more than 800 staff members as part of what we believe is Europe’s largest commercial IT training programme.”

ICL expects that the expanded alliance will generate approximately 200 new jobs at the ICL facilities outside the United Kingdom where the new Solution Centres will be located. Those wishing to contact ICL about employment opportunities should obtain more information from ICL’s Web site at http://www.icl.com/ .

Notes to Editors

The Four New Go-to-Market Sectors

The second phase of the alliance will focus on four new go-to-market sectors: electronic business, financial services, smart cards and secure systems. Microsoft platforms will become the preferred choice within these sectors unless technical or customer requirements dictate otherwise.

Electronic Business

ICL is a leading provider of services that enable organisations to attract, interact and transact securely and electronically. Services encompass consultancy, systems design and integration, project management, networks and access, managed services and multimedia design. The company has undertaken many high-profile projects covering business-to-business, business-to-consumer and knowledge management (intranets). ICL customers include ntl (United Kingdom), BBC Worldwide (United Kingdom), British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (BskyB) (United Kingdom), Northcliffe Newspaper Group (United Kingdom), Bart Smit (Netherlands), Nokia Corp. (Finland) and the Finnish Yellow Pages (Finland).

Phase II of the alliance will see ICL and Microsoft working together to develop best-of-breed electronic-business capabilities based on the Microsoft e-commerce platform, which includes Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition, Microsoft SQL Server TM and the Microsoft BizTalk TM Framework, a platform-neutral e-commerce framework based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) that makes it easy for businesses to integrate applications and conduct business over the Internet with trading partners and customers. These solutions will include Web-based applications for increasing the efficiency of purchasing and sales processes between buyers and suppliers, interactive online services (delivered by PC, kiosk, television, mobile phone, etc.) to enable businesses to better serve their customers, and knowledge-sharing intranets.

Financial Services

ICL works with major financial services companies worldwide to help them deliver a better level of service to their customers utilising ICL’s Lifestyle offering. Lifestyle is ICL’s strategic framework for the provision and delivery of customisable solutions to enable companies to provide services face-to-face, over the Internet, at kiosks and via mobile phones, call centres and ATMs. ICL customers include Barclays Bank (United Kingdom), Swedbank (Sweden), First Direct (United Kingdom), Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom), Citigroup Inc. (United States) and Banco Popular (Spain).

Under the alliance, ICL is developing applications for the new channels to market, such as interactive television and wireless Internet devices, based on Microsoft technologies.

ICL is also on the advisory council for Microsoft’s strategic architecture for financial services, the Windows Distributed interNet Applications architecture for Financial Services (Windows DNAfs) framework, which aims to reduce the time to market for an organisation’s products and services by increasing interoperability between disparate systems in the financial services environment .

Smart Cards

SmartCity is ICL’s end-to-end multiapplication smart card system. Such a system is able to support electronic purse, credit and debit cards, loyalty cards, identity cards and many other applications. Recognised as the world’s most advanced smart card system, SmartCity has been installed in over 70 sites worldwide with 1.5 million cards in use every day. Amongst others, ICL has provided smart card solutions for the Fort Knox U.S. Army training facility (United States), Thames Valley University (United Kingdom), LukOil (Russia) and Siam Commercial Bank (Thailand).

One of the first results of the alliance will be the development of a Corporate Campus system to provide employees in an organisation with a personalised smart card for multiple functions such as electronic purse and building access. These smart card solutions will be based on the Microsoft Smart Card for Windows solution, which is an 8-bit multiapplication operating system for smart cards with 8K of ROM. Smart Card for Windows utilises the familiarity of the Microsoft visual tools, Windows-based APIs and smart card extensions to the Windows NT® operating system. Applications become an extension of the Windows-based network, which provides a safe and secure environment for data.

Secure Systems

ICL is one of the world’s leading suppliers of secure IT systems for governments. The company has implemented Europe’s largest secure office system for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence.

Under the alliance, ICL will deliver secure systems and standardise on Microsoft’s Enterprise Infrastructure to deliver maximum organisational efficiency through functions such as groupware applications, electronic communications, security, information sharing and systems management. The secure systems foundation is based on the Microsoft Windows NT operating system, which has a robust security model that enforces granular access control on all resources and facilitates the consistent use of policies to take advantage of the technological safeguards.

ICL’s Relationship With Microsoft

ICL’s relationship with Microsoft began in 1982 with a project on the first multitasking version of the Windows operating system. The companies have been working together ever since, and in January 1997, ICL launched a Windows NT-based Centre of Excellence in Manchester. ICL also provides direct help-desk support to Microsoft in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, and through Microsoft Authorised Support Centres in all the countries mentioned, as well as France, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany and Spain.

In May 1998, ICL announced a global alliance with Microsoft to develop IT systems for enterprise customers in the retail, government, education and knowledge management arenas. Under the alliance, ICL established what is believed to be Europe’s largest commercial IT training programme, undertaking to train 3,000 MSCEs and 1,000 MSCDs over three years. To date, more than 800 have been certified. Also, ICL agreed to open seven Solution Centres located in Katowice, Poland; Stockholm, Sweden; Belfast, Bracknell and Manchester, United Kingdom; and Redmond, Wash., and Wake Forest, N.C., United States.

Now extending its training programme, ICL’s commitment to obtain a total Microsoft-accredited work force of 4,000 is the largest commitment to date by any one company in the world.

Notwithstanding ICL’s strategic relationship with Microsoft, as a multivendor IT services company, ICL has in place agreements with a variety of software and hardware suppliers including Amdahl Corp., Computer Associates, Fujitsu, Oracle and SAP.

About ICL

ICL is a global IT services company. It designs, builds and operates information systems and services for customers in the retail, finance, government, telecoms, utilities and travel markets. The company has operations in over 40 countries and employs over 22,500 people.

Transformed from a manufacturer of computers, today ICL improves business performance and competitiveness through services focused on electronic business, enterprise applications and the implementation and outsourcing of IT infrastructure.

For the 12 months to 31 March 1999, the company’s revenues were 2.735 billion, which generated a profit before tax and exceptional charges of 64.5 million. Headquartered in London, ICL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu and plans to float on the London Stock Exchange in 2000. ICL’s Web site is located at http://www.icl.com/ .

About Microsoft

Microsoft and its worldwide enterprise partners deliver a total solution: integrated platforms, powerful business applications and comprehensive global services that drive the success of its enterprise customers. Large organisations can work directly with Microsoft or choose among the many highly qualified Microsoft enterprise partners to implement solutions based on Microsoft enterprise products. More than 13,000 customers in 45 countries are realizing significant business value and competitive advantage from Microsoft worldwide enterprise solutions.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, Windows, BizTalk and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

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