HP and Microsoft Achieve Milestone for .NET Initiative

Business Wire, Oct 14, 2004

PALO ALTO, Calif. & REDMOND, Wash. -- In the "More information" graph under the ".NET Industry-specific solutions" subhead, the URL should read: www.hp.com/go/netmomentum (sted www.hp.com/netmomentum).

The corrected release reads:

HP AND MICROSOFT ACHIEVE MILESTONE FOR .NET INITIATIVE

.NET Solutions from HP and Microsoft Increase Agility, Reduce Costs and Build New Revenue Streams for Enterprise Customers Worldwide

HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) and Microsoft Corp. today announced significant growth in their .NET initiative with more than 1,000 projects engaged with nearly 700 customers in 39 countries, driving more than $600 million in incremental revenue.

Launched two years ago to help enterprises worldwide get more value from their investments in information technology, HP and Microsoft's .NET initiative has helped customers such as Washington State Department of Revenue and Land Registry in the UK improve agility, reduce costs, improve customer service, and generate new revenue opportunities.

When the State of Washington's Department of Revenue wanted to more aggressively identify businesses that underreport taxes or fail to register to conduct business in the state, it worked with HP Services to design and implement a business intelligence solution that allows it to more effectively enforce tax code compliance in the state.

"HP and Microsoft have enabled us to integrate information that resided in separate legacy systems so that we can more effectively manage taxpayer compliance and enforcement," said Tremaine Smith, Audit Division assistant director, State of Washington Department of Revenue. "With HP's .NET-based solution, delivered ahead of schedule and within a limited budget, we now have the tools to manage revenue collection accurately, administer programs to fund services and promote sound tax policy."

"The bottom line is that the HP and Microsoft .NET initiative is delivering real value to enterprise customers with key benefits, including increased agility, improved productivity and reduced costs," said Nora Denzel, senior vice president and general manager, Adaptive Enterprise, HP. "Our aligned visions, technologies and resources are resonating with customers who are rapidly adopting .NET-based solutions to build more agile, adaptive enterprises."

HP's .NET-based solution portfolio includes cross-industry and industry-specific offerings that address a variety of customers' critical business challenges opportunities. These .NET-based solutions incorporate key Microsoft(R) technologies including Windows Server(TM) 2003, the .NET Framework, BizTalk(R) Server 2004, SQL Server(TM) 2000 and SharePoint(R) Portal Server. The solutions run on HP ProLiant and Intel Itanium 2-based HP Integrity servers, HP ProLiant server blades as part of the HP BladeSystem, and HP StorageWorks products and are designed, implemented and supported by HP Services.

"The success of our joint investment in .NET solutions demonstrates the strength of our alliance in helping enterprises take advantage of Web services to capitalize on their existing technology investments and meet pressing business objectives," said Simon Witts, corporate vice president, Enterprise and Partner Group, Microsoft. "Microsoft and HP also are demonstrating the benefits that come to customers when industry vendors commit to deep collaboration: namely, accelerated innovation, minimized risk, and reduced costs."

.NET Cross-industry solutions

HP's .NET-based solutions portfolio includes cross-industry solutions such as enterprise portals, eLearning portals, enterprise application integration (EAI), document management, enterprise collaboration, and business intelligence.

Customers including Land Registry in the UK, JR East Japan Information Services Company, Regione Autonoma Sardegna in Italy and Phoenix Technologies in the United States are already benefiting from these .NET-based solutions in the form of millions of dollars in annual savings, improved access to vital information, and more efficient operations.

Land Registry guarantees the titles for GBP 2.5 trillion worth of property in the UK. To improve the quality and efficiency of its title services, Land Registry needed to manage its real estate records more effectively.

"The document and record management solution, provided by HP for Land Registry, and utilizing Microsoft .NET technology, will enable Land Registry to manage its administrative information more effectively, reducing expenditure on physical storage and paper file handling," said Terry Hewins, senior project manager, Land Registry UK. "The solution will provide online access to this information, allowing Land Registry staff to respond more quickly to inquiries from our customers at reduced cost. It will also provide us with the flexibility to keep up with changes in UK government legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Action which impact our business."

.NET Industry-specific solutions

As part of the .NET initiative, HP and Microsoft have jointly invested in the development and delivery of solutions for specific vertical industries, including finance, manufacturing and telecom, such as: