REDMOND, Wash., and PARIS, Feb. 10, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. and the Cap Gemini Group today announced a global alliance to develop and deliver a comprehensive portfolio of enterprise services and custom solutions based on the Microsoft® enterprise platform. The alliance will leverage Cap Gemini’s consulting and delivery excellence, and its e-business knowledge along with Microsoft’s newest and future generation of technologies. This combination of services and solutions on the Microsoft Windows® 2000 platform will provide increased business benefits to large enterprise environments. This alliance will focus initially on solutions for the Windows 2000 enterprise infrastructure, retail, electronic commerce and knowledge management markets.
Cap Gemini is focused on mobilizing the latest technologies and has chosen Microsoft as a key associate to help deliver the components of its next generation of e-business enterprise solutions and services. These solutions focus on realizing customer benefits from the rapid deployment of e-business solutions in the fast-changing business environment. This alliance will enable Cap Gemini to accelerate the delivery of complex systems under low-risk conditions while maintaining and exceeding its delivery standards of reliability and excellence.
“In working closely with Microsoft, we gained an intimate insight into its future enterprise strategy,”
said Pierre Hessler, a member of the governing directory of the executive board of the Cap Gemini Group.
“We now have the opportunity to expand this strategic relationship on a global basis. We also evaluated Microsoft’s suite of Windows 2000 products; we liked what we saw and felt it was a solution our customers will find attractive. We believe Windows 2000 to be a very important technology that will open up new market opportunities and create exciting new areas of business. In response to growing customer demand, we will be leveraging our expertise to help customers migrate to this new technology and are making substantial investments to respond to and develop these areas of new business.”
Alliance
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Go-to-Market
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Initiatives
Cap Gemini will develop and deliver to its clients a comprehensive portfolio of Microsoft line-of-business solutions and enterprise services targeting the following areas:
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Windows 2000 enterprise infrastructure. Cap Gemini will focus on infrastructure migration planning and architecture, infrastructure upgrading, application assessment, application migration and consultancy for new projects to maximize the benefits of Windows 2000.
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Retail market. Cap Gemini will focus on the design, development, sale and implementation of consumer-centric business solutions for retailers, as encompassed in its Store of the Future service offering. The Store of the Future will be based on Microsoft ActiveStore TM retail technology architecture and the Microsoft enterprise solutions platform. The retail initiative will enable customers to take full advantage of the retail business knowledge of Cap Gemini applied to their situation using the best of Microsoft technology.
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Knowledge management. Cap Gemini will focus on the design, development, sale and implementation of a knowledge platform as a basis for enterprise-scale information sharing, enhanced with its InfoWeb offering. Cap Gemini and Microsoft will be working together to develop solutions that deliver practical, rapid and measurable benefits to the knowledge worker.
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Electronic commerce. Cap Gemini will focus on the design, development, sale and implementation of business-to-consumer transaction systems, as encompassed in its Infomediary-in-a-Box service offering. Infomediary-in-a-Box will be based on Microsoft’s enterprise solutions platform. Cap Gemini has also developed a Microsoft-component-based customised portal, which can be installed with a lead time of less than one month compared to an average six-month development cycle.
To support the development and delivery of these offerings, Cap Gemini is embarking with Microsoft on a training investment program focused on the certification of 1,500 consultants as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MSCEs) and Microsoft Certified Developers (MSCDs). Cap Gemini will showcase its service offerings and solutions in its demonstration centers, located in eight cities worldwide. These demonstration centers will provide an environment for customers to view solutions and experience the interoperability between Microsoft-based solutions and other applications such as networking, database and directory service environments. To facilitate the close working relationship, Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) will assist Cap Gemini with solutions-architecture and practice-development activities and, through its Microsoft Premier Support organization, will provide Cap Gemini with direct support during client projects.
“We are excited to work with Cap Gemini as one of our leading global partners to make it easier for large enterprises to stay ahead of the curve in this increasingly complex electronic economy,”
said Charles Stevens, vice president of the Business Solutions Group at Microsoft.
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This alliance demonstrates our commitment to offering superior e-business solutions on the Microsoft platform.
During the term of this agreement, Cap Gemini will adopt the Microsoft platform as a core foundation within its evolving strategic architecture. Specifically, Cap Gemini will implement the Microsoft Windows 2000 family of server offerings and Office 2000 as core components and standards for their employees. The combination of the Office 2000 suite and Windows 2000 within Cap Gemini’s strategic architecture provides the next-generation business-computing platform to address Cap Gemini’s laptop, desktop and server computing needs.
The Microsoft enterprise platform is a comprehensive, integrated set of products and technologies that enable organizations to develop secure, reliable and manageable solutions for running their businesses. Based on the Windows NT® Server operating system, the Microsoft enterprise platform comprises Internet solutions, development tools, Office desktop applications, and the Microsoft BackOffice® family of server applications.
This global alliance expands CAP Gemini and Microsoft’s relationships, building on recent successes for their shared clients, such as Swiss Online, Statoil, Koninklijke Nederlandse Hockey Bond (KNHB), McDonalds, WH Smith, Boots the Chemists, AmuGruppen, Swedish Prison Administration and East Swedish Chamber of Commerce.
About the Cap Gemini Group
The Cap Gemini Group is one of the leading European management consulting and IT services groups. Designing and delivering strategic change through ideas, people and technology, the group provides management consultancy (Gemini Consulting) and systems design, integration and outsourcing (Cap Gemini’s IT services). With a work force of 40,000 operating in Europe, the United States and the Far East and revenue of 4.3 billion euros in 1999, the group is among the world’s largest information technology providers.
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.
Microsoft, Windows, ActiveStore, Windows NT and BackOffice are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries/regions.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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