SANTA CLARA, CA - Feb. 5, 2002 – Capitalizing on their successful 11-year relationship, Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) announced today they will work together to help companies worldwide meet the challenge of rapidly deploying web-centric Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions.
As part of Sun’s global solutions alliance initiative, Accenture and Sun will team to help companies transform their businesses by working together to lower the total cost of ownership for CRM implementations, reduce overall risk, and accelerate deployment. This first joint effort is a pre-integrated, proven solution providing customers a single destination for their CRM needs. The solution will be led by Accenture and backed by Sun’s open standards architecture including Sun servers, Sun Storage, Sun’s Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) and Sun technical consulting, training and support services.
Accenture and Sun have already implemented the Web-centric CRM technology in Sun’s contact centers. Feedback from Sun Center management and representatives shows improved productivity, increased customer routing accuracy and more aggressive cross sales resulting in increased revenues. Sun Center representatives attest to greater efficiency and more helpful customer profiling and tracking systems, as well as a higher degree of confidence in the sales and support services they provide.
"Companies today face real challenges in developing new and stronger relationships with their customers and look to CRM for the answer," said John Freeland, Accenture CRM Managing Partner. "The Accenture and Sun effort will help our customers jumpstart their CRM initiatives and realize benefits sooner."
"This alliance is an extension of Sun’s and Accenture’s successful history of working together for several years," said Masood Jabbar, executive vice president of Sun’s Global Sales Operations. "With the combined strength of the two organizations, we are providing our mutual customers with the hardware, software and consulting services that best meet their business needs while increasing their ROI."
According to a recent report by International Data Corporation (IDC), companies are looking to migrate CRM applications from the mainframe and client/server environment to a Web-centric environment because it is more flexible and scalable. Sun and Accenture are addressing those needs by providing companies easier access to data through Web and wireless devices.
Accenture and Sun are leveraging their respective strengths to drive the effort. Accenture, through its deep industry skills and leading experience in CRM, offers its clients an enterprise-wide understanding of their customers and a full range of capabilities that deliver value to the bottom line. Sun, the number one UNIX vendor according to Gartner Dataquest, provides open standards architecture that promises better integration and improved cost efficiencies for improved ROI. Sun solutions are based on the Sun ONE architecture, which enables customers to realize lower total cost of ownership through an open, integratable software solution that provides flexibility and choice to adapt to fast changing business conditions.
About Accenture
Accenture is the world’s leading management and technology services organization. Through its network of businesses approach -- in which the company enhances its consulting and outsourcing expertise through alliances, affiliated companies and other capabilities -- Accenture delivers innovations that help clients across all industries quickly realize their visions. With more than 75,000 people in 47 countries, the company generated net revenues of $11.44 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2001. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- The Network Is The Computer[tm] -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at www.sun.com.