July 19, 2004 -- Capgemini (www.capgemini.com) and Microsoft Corp. (www.microsoft.com) today announced several milestones in their seven-year alliance -- including strong momentum in U.S. healthcare and European public-sector markets -- as well as a new multimillion-dollar global agreement designed to extend the relationship across industries worldwide. The companies have collaborated since 1997 to help enterprise organizations take advantage of the latest Microsoft® technologies to achieve competitive advantage, grow revenue and reduce costs.

"The steady growth of our alliance can be attributed to three factors," said Deanne Handron, senior vice president and global alliance leader at Capgemini. "First, Microsoft provides industries with an integrated, comprehensive platform for rapidly developing high-value business solutions. Second, Capgemini is adopting the latest technology advancements from Microsoft as they emerge, allowing us to deliver innovative solutions. And most important, both companies rely on collaboration as a critical strategy to meet client needs, and we have become experts in working together to help clients achieve measurably faster, better and more sustainable results."

The alliance has generated more than $2 billion in sales of Microsoft-based solutions and services since its formation, and the companies have increased alliance sales more than 47 percent since 2002.

"Capgemini has the deep industry and technical expertise required to help enterprises take advantage of Microsoft technologies to advance their business objectives," said Simon Witts, corporate vice president of the Enterprise and Partner Group at Microsoft. "We are very excited to build on our long-term success with Capgemini and take our alliance to the next level."

Under the alliance agreement, Capgemini and Microsoft will invest more than $50 million to improve their ability to meet the needs of clients in a wide range of industries worldwide. The investment is focused on accelerating the development of new industry solutions based on the Microsoft Windows Server System (TM) and Microsoft .NET software, and professional services from Capgemini.

In addition, Capgemini and Microsoft are focusing on expanding the alliance portfolio of cross-industry solutions in the areas of security, mobility, server consolidation, migration of infrastructure and applications to the Windows® platform, .NET Web services, enterprise application integration, and outsourcing.

The investment also is being used to provide technical and sales training on new Microsoft products to Capgemini architects, developers and consultants worldwide, and to expand and improve the companies' joint marketing and sales engagement.

Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services, has a unique way of working with its clients, which it calls the Collaborative Business Experience. Capgemini Group has more than 4,000 professionals skilled in Microsoft technologies and five Accelerated Delivery Centers dedicated to Microsoft solutions. Capgemini experts are members of several Microsoft Partner Advisory Councils, helping shape Microsoft product and development strategies in areas such as mobility, communication and collaboration, and e-business.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.