Accenture and SpringSource Team to Deliver Production Version of Open Source Framework for Batch Processing.

-- Kaufmannische Krankenkasse, leading German healthcare company, among early adopters of Spring Batch --

NEW YORK & SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and SpringSource today announced the availability of a production version of an open source framework for batch processing, called Spring Batch. Kaufmannische Krankenkasse (KKH), a leading German healthcare company, is among more than 35 Accenture clients already leveraging the framework.

Developed jointly by Accenture and SpringSource, a leading provider of open source software, the new Spring Batch framework enables large organizations to use open source software to develop customized applications essential to their daily operations for batch processing, reducing development time and costs. The two companies are also collaborating on a number of other client solutions that utilize other open source offerings from SpringSource.

Batch processing refers to the automated processing of large numbers of transactions, typically at the end of the day or overnight, when computer resources are typically less busy, rather than processing transactions individually in real-time. Used by most large organizations, batch processing accounts for billions of transactions daily for critical operations, such as financial accruals, claims, payroll and correspondence.

"This announcement fills a void, as enterprise-caliber open source frameworks for batch processing remains rare. So far the results have been great, with many of our clients already enjoying accelerated delivery of solutions and the reduction in risk," said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology architect. "What's more, our relationship with SpringSource is a critical part of our technology architecture strategy for custom enterprise Java development projects. Clients looking for open source software solutions benefit from high-quality software and increased levels of innovation and support."

Dr. Ulrich Vollert, KKH's chief information officer, said: "KKH was an early adopter of Spring Batch because we saw a great opportunity to leverage an emerging standard and use a lightweight programming model for batch-style applications. By integrating Spring Batch with our scheduling and control system, we realized unified administration for legacy COBOL as well as Spring Batch implementations. The flexibility of a Java-based batch architecture helps us quickly incorporate new requirements, reuse existing components, and get better testability."

Spring Batch and other open source frameworks provide the benefit of lower-cost software support and maintenance, as well as ongoing participation from a thriving software community. The community benefits from frequent updates, access to the product roadmap and source code, and the ability to directly contribute through enhancements and software improvements.

Accenture and SpringSource began work on the Spring Batch framework last year. The two companies subsequently collaborated with an online community of hundreds of developers and received direct input from numerous clients as well as other members of the Spring community to develop Spring Batch.

"We're excited about our relationship with Accenture, mainly because of the benefits it will deliver to our joint clients," said SpringSource CEO Rod Johnson. "For instance, Spring Batch can help enterprises reduce, by several months, the time it takes to design and develop critical batch-processing applications. We look forward to continuing to work together to deliver similar benefits to other clients."

Availability

Spring Batch is available by visiting the Spring Framework website at: http://www.springframework.org/spring-batch.

About SpringSource

SpringSource, the company behind the ubiquitous Spring Portfolio, offers a single source for products and services to help organizations utilize Spring and, through its recent acquisition of Covalent, manages infrastructure technologies from the Apache Software Foundation. More than half of the Fortune 500, including many of the world's largest financial institutions, retailers, manufacturers, healthcare, technology and public sector clients are SpringSource customers. For more information visit: www.springsource.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. 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. With 178,000 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.