American Greetings Selects Capgemini to Support Technology Implementation

Business Wire, Nov 19, 2008

Multi-Year Engagement Combines Consulting and Technology Services

NEW YORK -- Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, announced today that American Greetings has selected Capgemini as its systems integrator for a multi-year technology implementation initiative designed to strengthen American Greetings' market leadership. American Greetings, the creator, manufacturer and distributor of social expression products, selected Capgemini for this project to help the company fully utilize its investment in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite and standardize many areas of operations.

Capgemini will combine technology and consulting services with retail and consumer products industry insight to enable American Greetings to focus on its core business and evolve the business model for current and future market conditions. Capgemini will work with American Greetings to implement a technology platform designed to provide more comprehensive and real-time information to make the business more efficient. The technology platform will be based on the latest version of SAP for Retail, a services-oriented architecture based flexible and open system.

Capgemini's Technology Services practice will leverage its proprietary methodology for SAP for Retail, including a center of excellence in Kolkata, India. The move toward a single global ERP system should provide American Greetings with access to real-time data to make operations more efficient. Capgemini will also utilize its Rapid Design and Visualization application development accelerator which will allow American Greetings to visualize prototypes of applications before a single line of code is written.

Capgemini's Consulting Services will work with American Greetings to identify which business processes should be utilized and how those business processes should interact. Furthermore, a change management program will be implemented to align strategy and operations and to educate different teams within American Greetings on the new capabilities.

"American Greetings has taken a systematic approach to aligning its people, processes and technology," said Lanny Cohen, chief executive officer of Capgemini U.S. LLC. "American Greetings has a long history in providing customers with innovative ways to express themselves. We look forward to helping American Greetings match this level of product innovation with business model innovation."

About Capgemini

Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, enables its clients to transform and perform through technologies. Capgemini provides its clients with insights and capabilities that boost their freedom to achieve superior results through a unique way of working - the Collaborative Business Experience - and through a global delivery model called Rightshore([R]), which aims to offer the right resources in the right location at competitive cost. Present in 36 countries, Capgemini reported 2007 global revenues of EUR 8.7 billion (approximately USD $13.6 billion) and employs over 86,000 people worldwide.

More information is available at www.us.capgemini.com.