REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 10, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that partner momentum is rapidly growing for the Microsoft®
Office System, with solution partners building and deploying Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solutions to make it easier for organizations to gain visibility into their portfolio of projects, and for employees to collaborate on documents and manage the issues and risks associated with their projects.
The industry support for Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 indicates the growing excitement around the $117 billion (U.S.) market opportunity for business intelligence, collaboration, work management and business process solutions annually by 2006. Thus far, more than 200 new solutions for Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 have been developed by more than 50 partners, showcasing a breadth of industries and domain expertise and offering Microsoft customers innovative new ways to realize business value by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of their information workers.
“Project partners play a strategic role in applying Project Server technology to a customer’s specific needs,” said Chris Capossela, general manager of the Project Business Unit at Microsoft. “Optimal usage of Enterprise Project Management requires that business strategies, culture and processes match the IT infrastructure. It is exciting to see the incredible momentum that our partner community is creating around these kinds of solutions.”
Project Partners: Aligning Business Strategies to Project Execution
The Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management Solution (EPM) enables industry partners to create compelling, end-to-end business solutions around portfolio management, resource management and project collaboration. By building on Project Server 2003’s open platform, partners can work with customers to address strategic imperatives and develop practical solutions using the familiar Microsoft Office user interface and leveraging existing investments in back-end systems.
Building on this strong foundation, partners already have created new solutions that are being implemented in virtually every industry around the globe to help organizations of every type realize their potential. Immedient creates innovative, scalable solutions based on the Microsoft platform that drive productivity, enhance accountability and facilitate teamwork. Backed by a foundation of infrastructure and custom application services, Immedient has earned an impeccable reputation for consistent delivery of results-driven solutions in the areas of finance, information technology, operations, sales and human resources.
“Prior to our focus on EPM, Immedient’s core focus was infrastructure, custom Web development and Microsoft .NET,” said Richard Cano, vice president of the Enterprise Solutions Group at Immedient. “Microsoft Project has added an additional solution-focused revenue stream, and it’s our fastest growing business. Over the past sixteen months we have experienced significant growth, with over $20 million worth of EPM business in the pipeline. We achieved $16 million in the first nine months.”
Pcubed Inc. offers high-caliber project management expertise and strong knowledge of the Microsoft Office EPM Solution to raise the competency of IT leaders and project teams as well as the project management maturity of the IT organization. The Pcubed solution enables users to combine the right people, processes and technologies to fully realize the business impact of project management across the IT enterprise.
“Pcubed specializes in program and project management solutions on the Microsoft EPM platform,” said Adrian Balfour, CEO of Pcubed. “Our core expertise is to help customers align their project and resources to their business strategies, and make sure that the business process supports the execution goals of the programs and projects. Integrating EPM solutions with line-of-business applications is also an important component of our solution offerings.”
With 23,000 employees in more than 30 countries, Getronics delivers global deployment and system integration services to large enterprise customers.
“Our Getronics solutions and services offering fully incorporates the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management solution platform,” said Jean-Paul Adans, senior vice president and CIO of Getronics. “Many organizations are managing large amounts of projects with high business impact. The EPM solution gives them the visibility, insight and control over their programs, projects and resources. It helps optimize project results and contribute to the profitability. At Getronics we also implement the EPM solution internally to improve the management of our programs and projects.”
Several additional industry partners also are creating solution and service offerings for the Microsoft Office EPM Solution, including Business Engine, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, EDS, HP, Project Management Solutions Inc., Project Solution, ProSignt, QuantumPM LLC and Tenrox.
Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management Solution Overview
The Microsoft Office EPM Solution will help businesses increase efficiency, enable greater integration of project management into existing business processes, and broaden the use of project management tools. With tools such as the Project Center, business executives and project managers will be able to more easily track and communicate the status of their projects and resources across their organization, and use this data to make more-informed business decisions. Team members also will be able to contribute to projects using the applications they currently use, including Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server (TM) 2003 with Microsoft Windows®
SharePoint (TM) Services.
Users of the Microsoft Office EPM Solution will benefit from key enhancements in Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 that address data security, time reporting and risk management. Users also will find improved project portfolio and resource management functionality, greater reliability and a development platform that makes it easier to create customized solutions.
About the Microsoft Office System
The Microsoft Office System is an easy way to help more people use information to positively impact their business. Through a system of familiar and easy-to-use programs, servers, services and solutions, users can connect people and organizations to information, business processes and each other — helping ensure that they derive the most value out of information. The Microsoft Office System consists of the 2003 editions of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Office Project and Project Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office FrontPage® 2003, Microsoft Office InfoPath (TM) 2003, Microsoft Office OneNote (TM) 2003, Microsoft Office Publisher 2003, Microsoft Office Visio®
2003 and the Microsoft Office Solution Accelerators. Enabling technologies, such as Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Windows Server 2003, enhance the features and functionality of products in the Microsoft Office System.
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, Outlook, Windows Server, Windows, SharePoint, FrontPage, InfoPath, OneNote and Visio 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.
Partners and solution integrators building solutions on Project 2003:
More information on Microsoft Office System solutions can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/Office/preview/solutions/directory.asp.
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