Avanade(R) Customers Get Ready for Business Advantage with Microsoft(R) Technology; PCL Constructors and Others Value Innovative Avanade Solutions Comprising New and Existing Investments.

SEATTLE -- To ensure their business is ready for a shift in customer behavior and market trends, companies are turning to Avanade Inc. to make the most of a suite of new Microsoft products. A leading global technology integrator for Microsoft enterprise solutions, Avanade has been engaged by early adopters in diverse industries to help increase efficiency, drive better business decisions and achieve operational excellence using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio(R) 2005 in conjunction with existing systems.

Data coming from multiple channels - sales calls, service centers, self-service Web sites, RFID systems and more - poses both a challenge to manage and an opportunity for companies to gain more insight into every aspect of business, from supply chain to customer relationships.

"Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 are vital to a new era in business insight and intelligent system function," said Eric Blankenburg, vice president-Application & Integration Solutions, Avanade Inc. "We're helping customers take advantage of new and legacy Microsoft technology investments to better leverage their internal knowledge of customer behavior to create self-adapting systems that drive instant response to a fast-changing business environment."

Avanade Customers Gain Insight, Operational Efficiencies

A number of companies already have enlisted Avanade to develop enterprise performance management solutions with new Microsoft technology, for rich insight into costs and profitability by product, customer or customer segment, geography, or channel. These firms include Navitaire(R), a solutions provider for the airline and travel industry, and PCL Constructors, a leading North American construction company.

For PCL Constructors, Avanade is helping to develop collaboration and reporting systems that will produce immediate benefits and position the company for competitive advantage well into the future. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 serve as the cornerstones for a document collaboration system featuring a "smart client" interface that's accessible through secure virtual private networks, but also is feature-rich, offering centralized version control, document management, intellectual property re-use and accurate reporting.

Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Avanade is also architecting a safety-management system that tracks inspection and incident reports to further validate PCL Constructors' solid safety record with concrete metrics.

"The safety of our workers is of utmost importance and integral to everything we do, and the safety-management system Avanade is helping us develop will provide crucial monitoring capabilities that help ensure we continue to trend toward zero incidents on all of our construction projects," said Brian Ranger, general manager of systems and technology, PCL Constructors. "Their mastery of Microsoft technology's myriad enhancements gives us every confidence that the system will advance our business and technology goals."

Paving the Way to Customer Intimacy

Deep Microsoft expertise serves Avanade to help companies make the most of Microsoft technology with specific solutions. The Avanade Performance Management Solution(TM) taps structured and unstructured data from multiple systems to empower employees to make smart decisions and use information to company advantage. Actionable reports in familiar document formats contain information relevant to the task at hand - from budgeting to support for regulatory compliance. And Avanade Solutions for Large Enterprise Applications(TM) take advantage of SQL Server 2005 to boost the efficiency and scalability of leading ERP and CRM software products, provide powerful real-time reporting and analytic capabilities.

"Avanade is designing and building great solutions to help global customers use Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 for best-of-breed technology capabilities with the added advantage of an integrated platform," said S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp. "Avanade's customers can expect systems that generate insight and efficiency now serving as a platform for swift adaptation to customer and industry opportunity and delivering the performance and cost-reduction benefits of a single stack of technology."

Gerry Salm, systems and technology manager of operation systems for PCL Constructors, cites the importance of this integration to the project document control system the firm is developing with Avanade's help. "We searched for a solution that would make document management an integral part of employees' daily routine. But email, for example, frequently contains crucial project data, and we realized we needed something other than a packaged application to meet our standards for incorporating these sources of information."

Taking advantage of new Microsoft technology, Avanade is also developing systems for e-commerce and knowledge management incorporating predictive analytics and self-adapting operations that adjust to business change. Above and beyond customer and supply chain insight, this state of "intimacy" will allow companies to better understand and respond to customer behavior with more targeted sales and marketing activities, improvement on the customer experience, and better designed goods and services to target opportunities for revenue growth.

For the supply chain, business activity monitoring (BAM) will help make cost-effective management by exception a reality. With advance access to Microsoft technology, Avanade is working to exploit the forthcoming capabilities of Microsoft BizTalk(R) Server 2006 for enterprise integration and leading-edge BAM.

About Avanade

Avanade is the leading technology integrator specializing in the Microsoft enterprise platform. Our people help customers around the world maximize their IT investment and create comprehensive solutions that drive business results. Additional information can be found at www.avanade.com.

Avanade and the Avanade logos 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.