Accenture and Avanade to Demonstrate IT Prototype at Microsoft SOA and Business Process Conference

REDMOND, Wash; Oct. 29, 2007 – The Accenture and Avanade Solutions Showcase at Microsoft will demonstrate its first solution prototype from Oct. 30 – Nov. 2 at the 2007 Microsoft SOA and Business Process Conference on Microsoft Corp.’s Redmond campus.

The prototype demonstrates the use of forward-looking service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management technology in a human resources (HR) solution that helps organizations quickly and efficiently bring on board new employees.

Research has shown that it can take as long as 14 days to activate the essential requirements of new hires, such as laptop, telephone number and security badge, among others. The HR solution, built with Microsoft technologies, including the newly-released BizTalk Server 2006 R2, cuts the processing time by as much as 60 percent.

The prototype, making its debut at the Microsoft Conference, is the first to be developed by Accenture and Avanade in conjunction with the two companies’ Solutions Showcase, a unique venue where businesses and governments can receive briefings on the collective knowledge of the Accenture, Avanade, and Microsoft alliance and demonstration of the alliance’s Microsoft-based business solutions.

“Our customers are always looking to extract more value from their application development investments,” said Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief architect. “The Solution Showcase will allow them to experience the benefits of bringing together the technology skills, business process and industry expertise of Accenture and Avanade in a single location around mission critical solutions on the Microsoft platform.”

The HR prototype is built around a hypothetical company that is growing rapidly, but whose HR department is unable to bring new recruits onboard effectively and efficiently. As a result, management is missing growth targets, new employees are disgruntled from day one, and recruiting and HR lack the data needed to pinpoint areas for improvement.

By using business process management and SOA technology to speed up the overall HR performance and process, the joint Accenture-Avanade development team reduced the on-boarding process to four days, implemented new cycle time improvements to cut recruiting costs, and established metrics for ongoing process improvement. As a result, new employees reported improved satisfaction levels with the new hiring processes.

“Accenture and Avanade are uniquely qualified to build new solutions on Microsoft platforms because of their deep knowledge of Microsoft technology and Accenture’s industry expertise,” said Steven Guggenheimer, general manager of application platform marketing at Microsoft. “The creation of the Solutions Showcase is a natural extension of this relationship.”

The Solutions Showcase is harvesting and/or developing customized client solutions around such topics as:

About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With approximately 170,000 people in 49 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$19.70 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2007. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Avanade

Avanade is a global IT consultancy dedicated to using the Microsoft platform to help enterprises achieve profitable growth. Through proven solutions that extend Microsoft technologies, Avanade helps enterprises increase revenue, reduce costs and reinvest in innovation to gain competitive advantage. Avanade consultants deliver value according to each customer’s requirements, timeline and budget by combining insight, innovation and the talent of our global workforce. Founded in 2000 by Accenture and Microsoft Corp., Avanade has more than 7,000 professionals serving customers in 22 countries worldwide.

Peggy Fischer

+1 (206) 239 5953

peggyfi@avanade.com

Ed Trapasso

+1 (917) 452 3555

ed.trapasso@accenture.com