REDMOND, Wash., and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 5, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) and Pivotal Corp. (Nasdaq
“PVTL,”
TSE
“PVT”
) today announced that the companies are launching a global business development initiative aimed at leading the emerging demand chain management market — a market that combines e-commerce, eCRM and other e-business technologies to enable enterprises around the world to maximize revenue and increase customer loyalty. The goal of this initiative is to accelerate adoption, in Global 2000 enterprises, of a new breed of scalable customer-centric solutions that are fast to implement and quick to generate revenue.
“We’re deepening our relationship with Pivotal to accelerate an entirely new way of doing business over the Web,”
said Steve Ballmer, president and CEO of Microsoft.
“By combining Pivotal’s breakthrough solutions with the power of new technologies like XML and Microsoft® .NET Enterprise Servers, we will enable companies to achieve a level of business agility and integration with customers and partners that they haven’t experienced before. We’re very excited to work with a pioneer like Pivotal to open up tremendous revenue opportunity for companies around the world.”
Microsoft and Pivotal will embark on a three-year, multimillion-dollar initiative to lead the rapidly growing enterprise market for demand chain management. The two companies will jointly market and sell to Global 2000 companies demand chain network solutions that combine Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers and Pivotal’s XML-based enterprise applications. Microsoft sales and services professionals will be trained on the Pivotal solutions and will collaborate with Pivotal professionals to provide demand chain network solutions. A co-development lab located on Microsoft’s Redmond campus will provide Pivotal with engineering-level support and access to Microsoft product groups. The initiative also includes solution centers that will showcase the combined offering, and funding for a co-marketing program that includes advertising, online demand generation and joint participation at industry events.
According to Norm Francis, president and CEO of Pivotal,
“With more than 1,100 joint customers worldwide and a history of technology innovation in Web-based selling, e-commerce and CRM, Microsoft and Pivotal will impact the ability of companies to generate revenue with speed, flexibility and intelligence. Through this initiative, Pivotal and Microsoft will provide companies with solutions that offer unprecedented capabilities, enterprise-class scalability and superior total cost of ownership.”
The Microsoft-Pivotal initiative allows companies to extend significantly beyond Web-based selling and e-commerce by offering companies solutions to network every constituent in the demand chain, including partners, employees and customers. Through these demand chain network solutions, companies can capitalize on new opportunities to partner with retail outlets, indirect sales channels, wholesalers, manufacturers, e-marketplaces and Internet auctions to create and fulfill customer demand.
According to Matthew Dunn, senior vice president and CIO of Intrawest Corp.,
“Intrawest is accelerating revenue growth through the powerful combination of Microsoft and Pivotal for demand chain management. By leveraging these technologies, our worldwide resort business can evolve its revenue model and partnership models to create a new standard of customer service.”
The Pivotal demand chain network solution suite includes Pivotal ePower, Pivotal eSelling and Pivotal eRelationship applications and fully leverages the Microsoft .NET Enterprise 2000 platform and servers, including the Windows® 2000 Server, SQL Server™
2000 and Office 2000.
About Pivotal Corp.
Pivotal Corp. enables large and medium-sized businesses worldwide to make, serve and manage customers with superior speed and efficiency by providing XML-based demand chain networks that deliver personalized customer experiences across every touch point in real time. These networks unify Internet commerce, CRM, eSelling and wireless technologies to manage collaborative relationships between customers, business partners and employees; guide intelligent commerce transactions across multiple channels; seamlessly integrate the demand chain with the supply chain; and fully exploit Microsoft platform standards.
Pivotal solutions are sold in 35 countries and are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese and Chinese. Pivotal’s worldwide customer base includes more than 1,000 organizations in traditional, commercial and public market sectors and the new digital economy, including KPMG, Intrawest Corp., Goldman Sachs, Emerson Electric, US Filter, Ericsson, Nissan Motor Corp., HarperCollins Publishers, Qiagen Inc., Deutsche Bank, Trader.com, Southern Co., Lucent Technologies Inc., NEC, Deloitte & Touche, Principal Financial Group and Red Cross Australia. Pivotal is a public company traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol
“PVTL”
and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol
“PVT.”
More information can be found on the corporate Web site at http://www.pivotal.com .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies 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.
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This press release contains forward-looking statements including the ability of the demand chain network solutions to provide the anticipated benefits to third parties, its ability to maintain leadership in the eBusiness marketplace, and the anticipated benefits of relationships with a number of third parties. These statements are based on management’s current projections, beliefs and opinions at the date of this press release. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these statements based upon a number of factors including the possible failure of the demand chain network solution and eBusiness markets to grow as anticipated; the ability to train the sales and service organizations to deliver the demand chain network solution; the retention and hiring of qualified employees; the possibility of technical difficulties or delay in future product introductions, improvements and customer implementations; product pricing or other initiatives of Pivotal’s competitors; successful integration of recent acquisitions; and the continued interest, cooperation and performance of important third parties with whom Pivotal has business relationships. Pivotal undertakes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management’s projections, beliefs or opinions change.
©2000 Pivotal Corp. and Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved
Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Pivotal, Pivotal eRelationship, Pivotal eRelationship 2000, Pivotal eSelling 2000, Pivotal ePower 2000, Pivotal Interaction Engine, Pivotal Intelligence Engine and Pivotal B2B Syndicate are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Pivotal Corp.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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