Accenture, Microsoft And Avanade Team To Deliver Broad Range E-Commerce Solution For Government Market

SEATTLE, March 27, 2001 — Accenture, formerly known as Andersen Consulting, and Avanade, a new company formed by Accenture and Microsoft Corp., unveiled the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator at the Microsoft® Government Leaders Conference, attended by 400 government leaders from 80 countries. The Accenture eGovernment Accelerator uses an innovative service model to help governments move businesses and citizens out of lines by bringing them online to transact government business via the Internet.

The Accenture eGovernment Accelerator also gives government agencies at all levels the tools and services they require to rapidly and successfully deliver seamless services via the Internet. At the same time, the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator offers a vehicle for governments seeking a means to move from existing paper forms to online transaction processing for greater operational efficiency.

Powered with Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server technologies, the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator’s extensive, flexible architecture was derived from Accenture’s business and industry expertise in combination with Avanade’s deep infrastructure and development skills. JetForm’s FormFlow 99 and ReachForm products are integrated into the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator to enable easy development and rendering of electronic forms. Likewise, Texcel’s FormBridge product has been incorporated to facilitate conversion of regulatory forms to an XML format compatible with FormFlow 99.

“Government agencies need to rapidly and easily move their business transactions online,”
said Nick Baer, with the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information.
“The Accenture eGovernment Accelerator provides the potential to jump-start our State ePortal effort by offering a technical architecture and development environment that can be customized to meet unique state and local requirements. It also provides the infrastructure to quickly deploy automated forms, saving design and development time as well as data processing and administrative costs.”

Savings also can be derived from the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator with seamless transaction processing that links legacy back-end systems with interactive front-end applications, including a wide range of forms-based systems such as tax payment, fine payment and registration processing.

Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect, demonstrated the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator solution this morning at the fourth annual Microsoft Government Leaders Conference in Seattle.
“The Accenture eGovernment Accelerator is a great example of how partners such as Accenture and Avanade are using Microsoft’s Enterprise Server technologies to help governments interact more effectively with their citizens,”
Gates said.

The Accenture eGovernment Accelerator provides the environment and architecture to build e-government solutions across a wide range of functions, jurisdictions and boundaries.

“This powerful solution offers the answer to government leaders who are seeking a quick, cost-effective, reliable way to join the e-government wave we see rising from Ireland to Australia,”
said David Hunter, Accenture’s Global managing partner, Government Market Unit.
“This is a win-win for our government clients. They get three industry leaders working on their behalf, with a single point of contact.”

Built by Accenture and Avanade, the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator utilizes a range of robust Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server platform technologies, such as Microsoft BizTalk™ Server 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server™
2000.

“Avanade, along with its strategic partners Accenture and Microsoft, is committed to providing its global customers, including governments, with the most powerful and effective e-commerce solutions available today,”
said Mitch Hill, CEO of Avanade.
“The eGovernment Accelerator provides the flexibility, scalability and reliability that is Avanade’s signature when developing and building complex infrastructures such as this.”

Accenture’s government practice brings innovation, experience and in-depth industry knowledge to national and state governments and education institutions as it helps transform them, enabling them to deliver the services that their citizens have become accustomed to in the private sector, as well as reap the rewards of efficiencies offered by technology and the Internet. Accenture also delivers a wide array of world-class capabilities on the Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server and Windows® 2000 platforms – bringing to market a series of cross-industry and industry-specific business solutions based on leading-edge Microsoft technologies.

About Avanade

Founded in April 2000, Avanade Inc. is a joint venture between Microsoft Corp. and Accenture that leverages the Microsoft platform to deliver enterprise technology solutions. Avanade creates value for its customers by building customized, reliable architectures and scalable infrastructures to improve effectiveness, gain speed-to-implementation and support growth.

With more than 1,000 employees throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, Avanade provides cutting-edge technology integration services to governments, Global 2000 companies and emerging market-makers in industries such as communications and high tech, public sector, and financial services. Additional information can be found on the Avanade Web site at http://www.avanade.com/

About Accenture

Accenture, formerly known as Andersen Consulting, is a $10 billion global management and technology consulting organization. The firm is reinventing itself to become the market-maker, architect and builder of the new economy, bringing innovations to improve the way the world works and lives. More than 70,000 people in 46 countries deliver a wide range of specialized capabilities and solutions to clients across all industries. Under its strategy, the firm is building a network of businesses to meet the full range of client needs – consulting, technology, outsourcing, alliances and venture capital. The Accenture home page address is http://www.accenture.com/ .

On Jan. 1, 2001, Andersen Consulting’s name was changed to Accenture. Since Aug. 7, 2000, Accenture has not been associated with Andersen Worldwide or Arthur Andersen.

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.

Microsoft, BizTalk 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.

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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