June 08, 2015

Microsoft Recognizes Accenture and Avanade as 2015 Alliance Partner of the Year



The companies are also named Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Partner of the Year and Country Partner of the Year – Italy, demonstrating success in delivering client results and digital innovation.


NEW YORK and SEATTLE, WA; June 8, 2015 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN), a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, and Avanade, a global business technology, cloud and managed services provider, have been recognized by Microsoft as Alliance Partner of the Year for the eighth year in a row and eleventh time overall. Microsoft also awarded Accenture and Avanade with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Partner of the Year and Country Partner of the Year in Italy. As Avanade celebrates its fifteenth year in business, these awards reinforce the company’s status as one of the most successful joint ventures in the technology industry and, with Accenture, as the most frequently recognized Microsoft partners.

As voted by Microsoft global sales, Accenture and Avanade received Microsoft’s Alliance Partner of the Year award for demonstrating business excellence and customer satisfaction in delivering innovative Microsoft solutions. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Partner of the Year award recognizes Accenture and Avanade’s deep industry and technology expertise in delivering Microsoft Dynamics CRM-based client innovation. The Country Partner of the Year -- Italy award highlights the companies’ ability to help clients realize results with digital, cloud-based solutions in the Italian market. Together, Accenture and Avanade have collaborated on more than 10,000 Microsoft-based business and public service projects for more than 4,000 global clients.

“Understanding how to leverage the power of Microsoft technologies is even more critical today for clients operating in a cloud-first, digital-first world,” said Paul Daugherty, chief technology officer and chair of the Avanade Board of Directors. “Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft share a long and successful history of delivering technology solutions to help enterprises better engage and stay connected with their customers, empower employees and grow for the future.”

“Digital solutions are transforming the ways in which companies work, engage with customers and contribute to the bottom line,” said Adam Warby, Avanade chief executive officer. “Every day at Avanade, we help clients increase their use of technology to speed up, streamline, automate, redesign and optimize processes to drive business value and success. We’re honored that Microsoft has recognized our contributions and commitment to the success of our mutual clients.”

“The Accenture-Avanade-Microsoft alliance brings together the talent required to help our mutual customers thrive in a mobile-first, cloud-first world,” said Stephen Boyle, vice president, Microsoft Enterprise Partners. “With Accenture’s deep business and industry expertise, Avanade’s world-class services and Microsoft’s market-leading enterprise technology, these awards represent clear recognition of the digital transformation and cloud innovation the alliance is delivering for our joint customers.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year. The Accenture-Avanade-Microsoft alliance offers the valuable combination of market-leading technologies, industry expertise and delivery skills that result in more effective and efficient technology delivered at a lower cost. Avanade has 23 Microsoft Gold Partner Network competencies, and Avanade and Accenture together have more than 24,000 certi?cations in Microsoft technology.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 323,000 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$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Avanade
Avanade helps clients realize results in a digital world through business technology solutions, cloud and managed services that combine insight, innovation and expertise focused on Microsoft technologies. Our people have helped organizations in all industries improve business agility, employee productivity and customer loyalty. Avanade combines business, technical and industry expertise with the rigor of an industrialized delivery model to provide and deploy high quality solutions–on premises, cloud-based or outsourced. Avanade, which is majority owned by Accenture, was founded in 2000 by Accenture LLP and Microsoft Corporation and has 25,000 professionals in more than 22 countries. Additional information can be found at www.avanade.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.

Copyright © 2015 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, Accenture Software, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

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Contacts:

Julie Bennink
Accenture
+1 312 693 7301
julie.l.bennink@accenture.com

Jessica Brookes
Avanade
+ 44 207 844 2515
jessica.brookes@avanade.com

Jessica Kendall
Edelman
+ 1 206 268 2231
jessica.kendall@edelman.com