Baan Early to Market With Microsoft Windows 2000 Ready Enterprise Solution

VIENNA, Austria, Nov. 10, 1999 — At BaanWorld 99 today, Microsoft Corp. announced that BaanERP 5.0c is one of the first enterprise-class applications to be directory-enabled on the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 operating system. This new version of BaanERP fully utilizes the capabilities of Windows 2000. It provides customers of Baan Co. N.V. with a strong foundation on which to Internet-enable traditional businesses and enable transaction processing for e-commerce. Microsoft and Baan have also reaffirmed their continued collaboration in the development of e-enabled enterprise solutions.

The integrated services within Windows 2000 enable Baan to further deliver on its vision of providing end-to-end solutions for all aspects of the e-enabled enterprise from customer and supply chain management to e-commerce and enterprise resource planning (ERP). At BaanWorld 99, Baan demonstrated the broadest deliverable set of integrated e-enabled enterprise applications in the industry to support seamless e-fulfillment. By choosing Baan applications on the Windows 2000 operating system, customers can take advantage of the integration provided by this suite to reduce the total cost of ownership for enterprise solutions.

The benefits to Baan customers using Windows 2000 include the following:

  • Setup and installation. Baan plans to adopt the Microsoft Installer (MSI) client technology, which will enable customers to lower the costs associated with enterprise-scale implementation because of reduced client system administration and the use of an auto-repair feature.

  • Security. The security features of Windows 2000 allow enterprise network users to easily access all authorized network resources on the basis of a single authentication that is performed when they initially access the network. By using these services, Baan applications improve the productivity of network users, reduce the cost of network operations and improve network security.

  • Management. Baan utilizes the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) by providing a snap-in that enables an integrated and simplified management infrastructure for Baan environments from inside the MMC. This allows system administrators to carry out standard system-level administration through a far simpler user interface, while reducing associated time and costs.

  • Service publication and client configuration. With Windows 2000, Baan environments will be defined in the Active Directory TM services, greatly simplifying client configuration and lowering customer configuration costs. This is accomplished through the centralized administration of application services as well as the use of Add and Remove application services without any effect on clients.

“The Baan technology focus has always been to deliver increasing flexibility to our customers so they realize faster time-to-value within their organizations,”
said Laurens van der Tang, executive vice president of Research and Development at Baan.
“Developing on Windows 2000 makes this possible. Baan applications on the Microsoft platform give customers the ability to be flexible and react quickly to business changes. With our partnership, customers have an integrated enterprise solution that can be developed and deployed with ease within intranets and across the Internet.”

“By exploiting the capabilities of the Windows 2000 platform, Baan’s customers can make fewer trips to the desktop, simplify server management and strengthen security — even in a dynamic, Internet-enabled environment,”
said Deborah Willingham, vice president of Microsoft’s Business and Enterprise Division.
“Microsoft is excited that Baan recognizes the value of developing for the Windows 2000 platform, to quickly bring valuable new enterprise solutions to our joint customers.”

Continued Relationship Between Microsoft and Baan

The relationship between Microsoft and Baan has enabled the companies to provide value to customers through the following:

  • Technology foundation. Microsoft and Baan have continued to build a strong technology alliance on key elements of the technology foundation, such as Microsoft SQL Server TM 7.0 and Windows 2000, ensuring scalability and rapid deployment.

  • E-enterprise. Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition 3.0 provides the foundation for the Baan E-Enterprise suite of Web applications, providing a single, scalable framework for
    e-commerce.

  • Applications. Baan continues to utilize Microsoft development platforms to deliver scalable and flexible applications in the areas of customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management and business intelligence.

About Windows 2000

Windows 2000 will enable the next generation of PC computing by providing customers with an easy way to Internet-enable their business using the integrated Web application services, increased scalability and industry-standard security. Windows 2000 will provide a more reliable platform designed for increased system uptime and a more manageable operating system to lower desktop management costs, and will offer more centralized management for servers. In addition, Windows 2000 will enable knowledge workers to take advantage of new devices.

Microsoft plans to have general retail, channel and OEM availability of Windows 2000 on Feb. 17, 2000.

About Baan

Founded in 1978, Baan Co. (Nasdaq
“BAANF”
; ASE
“BAAN”
) is a global provider of enterprise business solutions. Baan Co. offers a comprehensive portfolio of integrated services and best-in-class, component-based applications that span an organization’s entire value chain

including e-business and Web commerce, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management and corporate knowledge management. Deployed at more than 13,000 customer sites worldwide, Baan Co. solutions enable organizations to drive strategic business growth, improve business processes, reduce operating complexity and increase corporate flexibility. Baan Co. has dual headquarters in Barneveld, the Netherlands and Herndon, Va., and can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.baan.com/ .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software 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.

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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