REDMOND, Wash. — May 20, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced the recipients of the 2014 Microsoft Preferred Supplier Program (MPSP) Excellence Awards. The MPSP Excellence Awards recognize superior performance, exemplary service and innovation by suppliers that demonstrate what it means to be a preferred supplier at Microsoft. The purpose of the MPSP is to build long-term relationships with a select group of strategic suppliers that create long-term value for Microsoft.
Winners of the 2014 MPSP Excellence Awards were nominated by employees of Microsoft in various business units, MPSP suppliers and Microsoft Procurement Professionals. An extensive panel of Microsoft employees select all final awardees, and award winners were based on excellence in quality, value, service and innovation. Winners were announced during the 12th Annual MPSP Summit on Microsoft’s main corporate campus in Redmond, Washington.
“I am very excited to recognize this year’s Supplier Program Excellence award winners for their outstanding performance,” said Mike Simms, general manager and chief procurement officer at Microsoft. “It was a year of significant change for Microsoft, and through their dedication, deep understanding of Microsoft and unending support, these suppliers rose above an amazing field of nominees and are well-deserving of this recognition.”
Winners were announced in six categories: Brand Value, Cost Management, Innovation, Market Agility, Reduced Risk and Supplier of the Year.
Intergen Ltd. — recipient of the 2014 Brand Value Award
Intergen has a long history of providing specialized development work for many Microsoft marketing teams. Whether it is creating custom tools or helping Microsoft sales teams sell more, Intergen has become extremely well-versed in the Microsoft brand. Most recently it expressed this talent through the development of a program called Immersion that is focused on increasing sales of cloud and enterprise products. Immersion was built to enable Microsoft and partner sellers to engage directly with customers and accelerate the sales pipeline. It delivered with flying colors and made great use of Microsoft’s products, not only providing a stellar solution but driving Microsoft’s brand home with its partners and customers.
Infosys Ltd. — recipient of the 2014 Market Agility Award
Infosys has been a long-term global provider of business consulting, technology, engineering, outsourcing, product and platform services for Microsoft. Its ability to remain agile in an ever-changing market has made it a leader in Microsoft’s Preferred Supplier Program. Most recently Infosys was recognized for its extremely efficient market agility through its work on the Next Generation Volume Licensing (NGVL) project. Working with very short timelines and high expectations, Infosys ramped up over 150 consultants and wrote over 2.4 million lines of code to deliver 10 NGVL releases on time. Its solutions dramatically decreased agreement processing time from an average of 672 minutes to less than five. And through the use of its Rapid Agile Delivery Model it delivered a key Accessibility Release three weeks ahead of schedule and thoroughly demonstrated its excellence in driving market agility.
Accenture — recipient of the 2014 Reduced Risk award
Accenture is a long-term partner of Microsoft, providing global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing services across the Microsoft enterprise. For the second year in a row Microsoft is recognizing Accenture for its unending excellence in reducing risk. Through many different ongoing efforts Accenture has proved yet again that it is a highly trusted partner of Microsoft whether it is helping Microsoft manage compliance risk through flexibility, responsiveness and broad capability or elevating customer satisfaction by making it a No. 1 joint priority with Microsoft. Microsoft has made a number of major changes this year, and Accenture has been in lock step along that path, ensuring that solutions are implemented compliantly, acquisitions are running smoothly and Microsoft customers have the highest possible level of satisfaction.
arvato AG — recipient of the 2014 Innovation Award
arvato AG is one of Microsoft’s key global suppliers, providing finance and accounting, credit and risk management, physical and digital supply chain, and customer support and marketing services across Microsoft’s diverse set of businesses. Most recently arvato developed a global platform solution to sell Microsoft official courseware in both print and secured digital format. The solution was provided in an extremely aggressive timeframe and is an example of the type of innovation Microsoft values. Leading the innovation charge, arvato provided a solution based on a proprietary platform and e-reader that is now being used by more than 128,000 students. Within the e-reader, more than 1 million notes have been created digitally and shared by students and trainers. Customer satisfaction has increased as arvato continues to enhance the platform and add more offerings.
Beyondsoft Corp. — recipient of the 2014 Cost Management Award
Beyondsoft is one of Asia’s top-notch, full-spectrum IT services and industry solutions providers with global delivery capabilities and a top-performing product development and test provider to Microsoft. Beyondsoft established Microsoft’s first and largest Tier-2 City Off Shore in Xi’an, China, with the goal of helping promote Microsoft technologies in China, and helping Microsoft achieve significant cost savings on comparable projects in tier 1 cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Beyondsoft’s focus on cost management went above and beyond Microsoft’s expectations with the establishment of the offshore location in an extremely short period of time, actually setting a Microsoft IT global record. Beyondsoft achieved these dramatic results through sustainable business practices that reduced risk for Microsoft and ensured continuous improvement over time.
Assembly/Edelman — recipient of the 2014 Supplier of the Year Award
Assembly/Edelman is a leading public relations, digital, social media, market researcher and provider of consumer insights for various Microsoft businesses including Xbox, Microsoft Retail Stores, Skype, commercial and many more across multiple countries. This past year was a key launch year for Microsoft and the Assembly/Edelman team. Assembly was tapped to launch Microsoft’s next-generation entertainment system, Xbox One, in a time when its predecessor, Xbox 360, had held the top-selling gaming console spot. Building on its expertise in PR, digital, events, support, research, innovation and Microsoft products, Assembly was tasked with showing the world how Xbox One was redesigned to be an all-in-one device that lives in the center of your living room. Through a hard-driving PR campaign, Assembly blew away expectations, contributing to more than 1 million Xbox One consoles sold in the first 24 hours following launch and 3 million by the end of 2013. Starting with its support of the Xbox launch in 2000 to its most recent successes with the Xbox One launch, Assembly/Edelman continues to be a key partner to Microsoft and is well-deserving of Supplier of the Year.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.
