REDMOND, Wash., June 17, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Hyundai/Kia Motors and Roche Diagnostics Corp. have chosen Microsoft®
Windows Media (TM) for critical training and communication applications in their businesses. These companies join a diverse range of organizations spanning the automobile manufacturing, consumer products, education, energy, government, healthcare, insurance, retail and high-technology sectors that have chosen Windows Media to reduce costs and increase the effectiveness of their training and communication. A new study of more than 700 large organizations by Market Decisions Corp. confirms this trend, showing that seven out of 10 companies using streaming are now choosing Windows Media. The study also revealed that companies increasingly are electing to use only one type of streaming technology, and that nearly two-thirds of these companies are choosing Windows Media.
Industry analysts also are seeing strong usage of Windows Media in the enterprise.
“Eight of the top 10 companies cited in our recent ‘Top 10 Streaming Implementations of 2001’ were using Windows Media,”
said Michael Hoch, senior analyst at the Aberdeen Group.
“Corporate use of streaming media is something we expect will grow significantly over the next 24 months, with Windows Media continuing to be one of the key technologies that companies will gravitate toward as this trend unfolds.”
“Microsoft is committed to providing businesses with products and technologies that enhance their productivity, and companies are responding by choosing Windows Media to more cost-effectively communicate with, educate and train employees and customers,”
said Dave Fester, general manager of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft.
Not only is Windows Media reducing the cost of training and communication, it is also helping solve many key barriers to broader digital media adoption. Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint®
2002 is addressing the need for easy content creation tools by providing everyday business users with an easy way to create engaging rich-media presentations on the desktop. In addition, Windows Media is easy for companies to implement with existing infrastructure, and it offers them a lower cost per stream along with the most scalable server technology.
Hyundai/Kia Motors, the largest automobile manufacturing company in Korea, with annual revenues of $22 billion (U.S.), adopted Windows Media to unify its technical training in the wake of a massive corporate merger. The company’s new system provides training to nearly 12,000 technicians while reducing travel and training costs and increasing productivity. Hyundai/Kia also is using Windows Media to introduce via the Web all its major passenger cars, including its new compact car, the Hyundai Click, to its customers in Korea.
“Video-on-demand training materials, developed using Windows Media, are one of the powerful new tools that helped us exceed even our best expectations for reducing the cost of training and improving the flow of information,”
said B.W. Yoo, general manager of the Service Technical Training Team at Hyundai/Kia.
“Information technology for training and education is developing at a tremendous speed, so using Windows Media-based e-learning for Hyundai/Kia is a major step toward maximum efficiency in our business operations.”
Roche Diagnostics, a leading developer of products for centralized medical diagnostics and diabetes care, previously conducted duplicate corporate meetings to accommodate a growing base of 3,500 employees in an off-site leased auditorium. Now the company uses Windows Media to deliver live
“eTownHall”
meetings, available on all local and remote desktops, to each of its employees. The technology reduces travel time by two hours per employee per meeting, saving 7,000 total hours of productivity while eliminating off-site facility rental costs.
Hyundai/Kia and Roche Diagnostics become the latest organizations to publicly embrace Windows Media for training and communication, joining Aetna Inc., General Mills Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., J.D. Edwards, Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, Mercedes-Benz USA, New Technology High School in Napa, Calif., NaviSite Inc., Northeast Florida Educational Consortium, Partners HealthCare System Inc., Pennsylvania State University’s Dickenson School of Law, SAFECO Life & Investments, SAS Institute Inc., Seattle Community College District, Stanford University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Unisys Corp., the University of Cincinnati, the Williams Companies Inc., and the Wisconsin Legislature. Information about how these organizations are using Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/enterprise/casestudies.asp .
About Windows Media
Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, providing unmatched audio and video quality to consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations. Windows Media offers the industry’s only integrated digital rights management solution and the most scalable and reliable streaming technology tested by independent labs. Windows Media Technologies includes Windows Media Player for consumers, Windows Media Services for servers, Windows Media Tools for content creation and the Windows Media Software Development Kit for software developers. Windows Media Player, available in 26 languages, is the fastest-growing and now leading media player. More information about Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/.
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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