Microsoft and MATERNA Join Forces to Offer Mobile Enterprise Solutions

REDMOND, Wash., and DORTMUND, Germany, Jan. 29, 2001 — Microsoft Corp. and MATERNA GmbH Information & Communications today announced a business and technical alliance to provide enterprise customers with cutting-edge mobile solutions based on Microsoft® platform technologies, including the new Microsoft Mobile Information Server. As part of this alliance, MATERNA, which is the first mobile software and service provider to offer a totally integrated Windows® 2000-based WAP Server solution, intends to offer customers a mobile add-on solution to Mobile Information Server, which is due in the first half of this year.

MATERNA, which is the first mobile ASP to use the Windows 2000 Datacenter Server for its new WAP Server hosted in the Anny Way Information Center, will work closely with Microsoft to enable mobile access to corporate and hosted services such as Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. The strategic alliance with MATERNA, and MATERNA’s add-on offering for MIS, will provide Mobile Information Server enterprise customers with increased mobility. The MATERNA technology, obtainable with the market availability of Mobile Information Server, will take the form of a service and a server software product. The service, offered by the Anny Way Information Center, will extend Mobile Information Server’s mobile SMS notification reach into any and all European and Asian mobile operators’ systems using one secure connection from the enterprise. The software product, MATERNA’s Anny Way WAP Server, will extend Mobile Information Server’s single password logon and secure browse access to all Internet and corporate intranet data sources. The Anny Way WAP Server can cache key user and device credentials, simplifying the life of mobile-data users because they are not forced to log on each time access is attempted on a new mobile service.

“Our relationship with MATERNA is part of a shared vision to provide the core mobility infrastructure for enabling enterprise customers to gain access to corporate data from any device,”
said Paul Gross, senior vice president of the Mobility group at Microsoft.
“Given MATERNA’s proven expertise and technology depth in the mobility space, we are very excited to be working with them to make that vision a reality for customers.”

“As mobility issues assume a more significant role in our business and daily life, it has become one of MATERNA’s chief objectives to support technologies for mobile communication,”
said Helmut an de Meulen, CEO of MATERNA.
“Our relationship with Microsoft and especially the integration of the Microsoft Mobile Information Server with MATERNA’s software solutions positions us perfectly for future engagement in this rapidly evolving industry. Moreover, MATERNA’s technologies are also an interesting link for other products and services from Microsoft. As we share our knowledge and work together in the area of wireless information technology, the user will profit from this alliance between two global players.”

About MATERNA Information & Communications

The MATERNA Group is one of Germany’s leading software distributors for information and communications technology. MATERNA currently employs more than 1,250 people throughout Europe. In 2000, the company earned revenues of 175 million euros. In addition to its headquarters in Dortmund, the company has branch offices throughout Germany as well as in France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. Its sphere of activity covers products, solution and services for e-solutions, mobile solutions and unified messaging.

About the Anny Way Information Center

The Anny Way Information Center (AIC) was developed in cooperation with the leading mobile network operators. The platform consists of a module that provides several integrated value-added services as a part of a scalable and comprehensive system. The selected value-added service modules are hosted in one of the AICs. Services may also be obtained on the basis of a license structure.

Detailed information on Anny Way Information Center can be found at
http://www.annyway.com/ .

About Microsoft Mobile Information Server

Mobile Information Server is a new mobile applications server product that extends the reach of Microsoft .NET applications, enterprise data and intranet content into the realm of the mobile user. Mobile Information Server, which is scheduled to be available in the first half of 2001 in the United States, Asia and Europe, will bring the power of the corporate intranet to the latest generation of mobile devices so users can securely access their e-mail, contacts, calendar, tasks or any intranet line-of-business application in real time, wherever they happen to be.

Detailed information on Mobile Information Server can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/servers/miserver/ .

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 —
anytime, any place and on any device.

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

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Anny Way is a registered trademark of the MATERNA Group.

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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