July 11, 2012

Microsoft Recognizes Accenture and Avanade with Three 2012 Partner of the Year Awards

NEW YORK: July 11, 2012 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN), a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, and Avanade, a business technology solutions and managed services provider, have been honored with three Microsoft Partner of the Year awards for 2012. Together the companies have earned more Microsoft partner awards worldwide than any other company to date. Recognitions for 2012 include:

“We’re pleased that Accenture and Avanade have once again been honored with Microsoft partner of the year awards in recognition of our ability to deliver outstanding results for clients on the Microsoft platform,” said Scott Harrison, global lead for Accenture’s Microsoft alliance. “Our consistent showing in these awards year after year is clear evidence of the joint commitment by our two companies to delivering business value and outcomes for our clients around the world.”

“Technology advancements in cloud computing and mobility are transforming the enterprise to help improve agility, lower costs and adapt to a changing workplace,” said Ian Jordan, Avanade executive vice president for sales, marketing and alliances. “Recognition by Microsoft in game-changing technology areas underscores our Microsoft leadership in delivering innovation that drives results for our customers.”

“Microsoft is pleased to recognize Accenture/Avanade as the Alliance Application Platform Partner of the Year and Mobility Partner of the Year. Together, Accenture and Avanade provide leading mission-critical application platform solutions for today’s enterprises,” said Mark Hill, Vice President, Enterprise Partners, Microsoft Corporation. “Accenture’s deep industry expertise combined with Avanade’s stellar technical skills for the Microsoft platform offer a complete end-to-end solution for our mutual customers.”

Accenture and Avanade have been jointly recognized for winning in the following award categories:

Alliance Partner of the Year – Application Platform Accenture and Avanade received the Alliance Partner of the Year – Application Platform award for their demonstrated leadership in driving Microsoft-based application platform solutions to enterprise customers that best integrate the infrastructure, database, business logic, user experience and server management layers for on-premises or cloud-based mission critical applications.

Mobility Partner of the Year

The two companies were jointly recognized with the Mobility Partner of the Year Award for their proven ability to deploy, integrate and support breakthrough solutions that help accelerate clients’ business cycles, increase productivity, reduce operating costs, and extend their infrastructures with the Windows Phone platform.

Country Partner of the Year – France Accenture and Avanade’s France business was honored with the Country Partner of the Year award for demonstrated business excellence in delivering Microsoft solutions to customers and for driving customer satisfaction and innovation.

In addition, Accenture and Avanade were also selected as finalists in the following categories, making them the most recognized partner across technical, civic, and geographic categories for 2012.

The recipients of the 2012 Microsoft Partner of the Year awards were recognized at this year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, held July 8-12 in Toronto, Ontario Canada. More information can be found at: http://www.digitalwpc.com/Pages/Home.aspx#fbid=eTdrPfzErPf

About Avanade

Avanade provides business technology services that connect insight, innovation and expertise in Microsoft technologies to help customers realize results. Avanade’s services and solutions help improve performance, productivity and sales for organizations in all industries. The company applies Microsoft expertise from its global network of consultants, drawing on the right mix of onshore, offshore and nearshore skills, which together are designed to help deliver results faster, at lower cost and with less risk. Avanade, which is majority owned by Accenture, was founded in 2000 by Accenture and Microsoft Corporation and serves customers in more than 20 countries worldwide with more than 15,000 professionals. Additional information can be found at www.avanade.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 249,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Avanade and the Avanade logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Avanade Inc. Other product, service, or company names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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Contacts:

Peter Y. Soh

Accenture

+ 703 947 2571

peter.y.soh@accenture.com

Corey Olfert

Avanade

+ 206 239 6133

corey.olfert@avanade.com