MEDIA RELEASE PR36789
Microsoft Announces the 'New Efficiency' in High Tech and Electronics
REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
Microsoft's partners and customers, including Dell and Intel, embrace technology innovation to cut costs,
improve productivity and speed innovation to survive and thrive in today's economy.
Responding to today's global economic downturn, Microsoft Corp.'s high-tech and electronics industry partners
and customers have been able to leverage the innovative application of new information technologies to gain
competitive advantage through improved operational efficiency, better value-chain collaboration and stronger
customer relationships.
Today, a new generation of business solutions is transforming IT into a strategic asset that makes it possible for
high-tech and electronics manufacturers to cut costs without crippling customer service or constraining
work-force creativity and effectiveness. A new generation of business solutions is eliminating the barriers between
systems and applications, and automating routine tasks so IT professionals can focus on high-value work
that is aligned to strategic priorities. These technologies also help high-tech organizations reduce risk, improve
security and drive down support costs.
For example, Dell is planning to upgrade 100,000 desktops and portable computers to the Windows 7 operating
system to reduce desktop management costs and enhance data security. Dell expects that Windows 7 will help the
company reduce the time required to update and test software images, strengthen operating system security and
improve operating system performance. New features will help IT staff deploy software and resolve user problems
faster.
Dell anticipates that results and benefits will include a 50 percent reduction of software imaging work, a 25
percent reduction in support costs, better data and network protection, and better performance and support for
portable devices.
"Dell has been an early beta customer of Windows 7 and has hundreds of internal pilot deployments. We expect
to move to a broader rollout now that the code has been officially released," said Takis Petropoulos, global IT
manager, Systems Management and User-Centric Solutions at Dell. "Our customers have expressed excitement
for the operating system, and through this early access, we have developed extensive experience that we are
capturing and making available to them via consulting services. We look forward to working with Microsoft to help
make Windows 7 a success."
Windows 7: From the Desktop to the Data Center
Windows 7 provides highly secure Internet-based anywhere access to enterprise data. Microsoft Office 2010,
SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, unified communications, collaboration and social computing
capabilities can help cut travel and other costs and support greater collaboration and team productivity. Microsoft
offers familiar tools that allow everyone from product designers and plant-floor operators to supply chain personnel
and customer sales representatives to succeed in an environment of ever tighter product life cycles and changing
consumer demands.
Dell, a worldwide IT solutions provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, for example, is committed to
providing its enterprise customers with innovative Microsoft Exchange Server solutions for efficient, cost-effective
communications. With the upcoming launch of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Dell has positioned itself to help
customers take advantage of new solutions and features that can deliver greater cost efficiencies, increase
productivity and improve communications.
Meeting Today's Demographic Challenge at Intel
Changing demographics also are changing the way high-tech and electronics companies do business. The high-
tech work force is more global than ever and requires knowledge-management capabilities to accelerate the
productivity of new employees. Solutions that are familiar and easy-to-use are needed to help the next generation
of workers ramp up at a very fast pace.
In early deployment at Intel Corporation, for example, Windows 7 together with Intel technologies is delivering IT
cost efficiencies and increased employee productivity via improved manageability, scalability and performance.
Intel and Microsoft architects have collaborated to deliver new business features in Windows 7, including shorter
boot, startup and shutdown times, better power management, easier desktop deployment, and out-of-band
(wireless) management.
"Today's economic storm is severely testing high-tech and electronics companies as well as other manufacturers
worldwide," said Sanjay Ravi, worldwide managing director, High Tech and Electronics, Microsoft. "High-tech
companies must achieve greater operational efficiencies, using IT to drive down costs while driving up global work-
force productivity and increasing cash flow. To survive and thrive in today's global economy, firms increasingly will
have to work in a high-performance business network of partners, customers and consumers, focusing on five key
business imperatives: grow customer relationships across the customer and consumer network, accelerate
innovation, develop dynamic and resilient supply networks, improve operations, and drive corporate performance
and compliance."
The New Efficiency for the "New Normal"
After years of economic expansion fueled by unrealistic rates of consumption and unsustainable levels of private
debt, the global economy has reset at a lower baseline level of activity. Today, people borrow less, save more and
spend with much greater caution.
Despite the challenges posed by the global economic reset and the transition to this "new normal," there are
encouraging signs that growth may resume in many parts of the world next year. Helping to drive that growth, the
global industry is entering a period of technology-driven transformation that will see a surge in productivity and a
flowering of innovation.
The new efficiency will not only help companies respond to today's economic reality, it will lay the foundation for
systems and solutions that connect people to information and applications, as well as to other people in new ways.
The result will be a wave of innovative products and services that will jump-start economic growth as companies
deliver breakthroughs that solve old problems and serve as the catalyst for new businesses and even new
industries.
About Microsoft's High Tech and Electronics Manufacturing Group
Microsoft's High Tech and Electronics Manufacturing Group strives to help people from high-tech and electronics
manufacturing companies innovate new and better products faster and cheaper, increase collaboration across the
manufacturing value chain, improve sales and customer service, and streamline plant-floor operations with visibility
from the shop floor to the top floor. Working with key partners, Microsoft offers an integrated set of solutions to
help companies handle their most difficult challenges. The company's technology solutions enable people to meet
global demands, increase quality and reduce costs in new ways throughout the value chain. More information is
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help
people and businesses realize their full potential.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
CONTACT: Wendy Grover of Microsoft, +1-425-705-7609, wegrover@microsoft.com, or Rapid Response Team,
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, +1-503-443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com
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