MADRID — May 16, 2013 — Telefónica, a leading provider of integrated communication solutions, will deploy Microsoft Office 365 and Yammer across its operating businesses to employees worldwide. These technologies are part of a global IT transformation strategy led by Phil Jordan, group chief information officer at Telefónica, to drive greater simplification, agility and cost reductions, which will strengthen and enhance the company’s core digital capabilities and global footprint.

With more than 130,000 employees in 24 countries, Telefónica is enabling and transforming the employee experience related to collaboration, providing a much faster, intuitive way with a seamless digital integrated experience. Moving to Office 365 and Yammer also benefits Telefónica by allowing its people to develop new products and services for its customers and markets while spending less time on infrastructure support of collaboration services. The deployment is also expected to reduce the costs of collaboration services by up to 20 percent while supporting the company’s specific security and privacy requirements.

“Telefónica’s relationship and transformation journey with Microsoft has brought us to this very exciting milestone. Over the past 18 months, we have built very strong foundations and are now ready to move to the cloud,” said Adrian Steel, European production hub lead and global director at Telefónica. “Deploying Office 365 and Yammer is this next step in bringing our global workforce to the forefront of seamless communication and collaboration while still operating at the level of speed and execution we’re known for.”

“Companies are looking to bring people together across organizational silos and geographies to drive innovation and reduce costs,” said Kurt DelBene, president of Microsoft’s Office Division. “Moving to the cloud with Office 365 and Yammer makes it easier and faster to collaborate regardless of location or organizational structure. Telefónica is a great example of a forward-thinking organization that understands how the cloud can power its business.”

Following a successful proof of concept carried out last year, Telefónica commenced initial deployments across Europe in April, which will later continue in Latin America. Microsoft Cloud Vantage Services will assist in delivering a complete migration to the cloud.

Steel, who oversaw the migration of 30,000 users to Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite in a previous role, has seen firsthand the range of new capabilities added to Office 365. One such example is Yammer, which Telefónica is embracing for improved collaboration across geographies. In February, Microsoft announced Microsoft Translator integration within Yammer, allowing users to instantly translate Yammer conversations into their native languages.

“With operations in 24 countries spanning eight languages, we are looking forward to the ability to instantly translate conversations among our employees — a massive benefit for Telefónica,” Steel said. “By automatically converting conversations to a person’s native language, Yammer will help our people work more efficiently than ever and focus on delivering superior value to our customers. Other critical capabilities included unified communications via Microsoft Lync 2013 and cloud-based storage via SkyDrive Pro.”

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available in the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world in terms of market capitalisation and number of customers. From this outstanding position in the industry, and with its mobile, fixed and broadband businesses as the key drivers of its growth, Telefónica has focused its strategy on becoming a leading company in the digital world. The company has a significant presence in 24 countries and a customer base that amounts close to 316 million accesses around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.

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.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 13, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced new organizations have selected Microsoft Office 365 for improved communication and collaboration after having deployed or piloted Google Apps. The organizations include Sensia Hälsovård AB, SEPCOIII, and Arysta LifeScience.

These companies join other recently announced customers, such as Caltex Australia, FHI 360, and Santa Clara County, which chose Office 365 for its enterprise-class capabilities, compliance, security and privacy features, all delivered in a cloud service with a 99.9 percent financially backed uptime guarantee from Microsoft.

“Businesses use technology to be competitive and meet the needs of their customers, which is why they can’t afford to compromise on a service that was retrofitted for the enterprise,” said Michael Atalla, director of product marketing for Microsoft Office 365. “With Office 365, Microsoft has combined the familiarity of Office with the capabilities businesses need, delivered as a cloud service they can trust.”

Arysta LifeScience is one of the largest privately owned agrochemical companies in the world, with sales and services in more than 125 countries. In attempting to connect 34 different email environments, Arysta initially opted for Google Apps but quickly found employees were unhappy with the experience — they couldn’t share calendars and had limited offline capabilities — so Arysta switched to Office 365. With Office 365, employees can now integrate email and shared calendars and use IM and webconferencing to connect with colleagues around the world while they are on the road or working from home.

“Google Apps was difficult to use and lacked the capabilities our employees had grown accustomed to in Office,” said Dustin Collins, global head of IT infrastructure, Arysta LifeScience. “With Office 365 we’re able to interact and engage with each other more, allowing us to efficiently and quickly respond to new opportunities. As a result, we’re a more agile, competitive organization.”

Robust certification and standards

Office 365 offers the most robust set of certifications and standards options of any major cloud-based productivity service, and it is the first and only major cloud productivity service to address the rigors of the federal government’s HIPAA requirements. Office 365 is compliant with world-class industry standards, including ISO 27001, EU model clauses and Federal Information Security Management Act. Microsoft is committed to working with its customers to meet their unique security, compliance and privacy needs, including those that must meet Criminal Justice Information Security.

Based in Durham, N.C., FHI 360 is a global nonprofit human development organization dedicated to improving lives by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. It also switched from Google Apps to Office 365 because it met the organization’s security and privacy requirements.

“As a nonprofit organization, we work on educational and public health issues and must comply with privacy regulations related to the U.S. federal government,” said Douglas Wilkins, director of IT infrastructure at FHI 360. “Not only did Office 365 have privacy features in line with our requirements, but we know where our data is stored — it’s essential for us to have control and set parameters on who views it. That was not possible with Google.”

Freedom of choice

In today’s business environment, many organizations require the flexibility to enable employees to work anytime, anywhere across devices and platforms. With Office 365, employees can sign in from virtually any device, and their documents and personalized settings roam with them, allowing them to quickly pick up right where they left off. With more than 4,000 employees spread across multiple countries, FHI 360 can easily connect and share best practices and improve services with Office 365 while being more strategic with spending. The organization expects to save approximately US$20,000 annually by utilizing IM and webconferencing capabilities in Office 365. Unlike Google Apps, Office 365 enabled FHI 360 to move to the cloud on its own terms by supporting both on-premises and cloud deployments in its environment.

“Our global work environment sometimes requires us to work in countries where cloud services aren’t yet available or feasible because broadband connections are limited,” Wilkins said. “With Google, we had to be all in or nothing at all. Having the flexibility to make the deployment choices that were right for our business means we can consolidate systems onto the same platform regardless of whether we’re using the cloud or an in-house server.”

Additional new Microsoft Office 365 customers

• Arysta LifeScience. Arysta LifeScience is an agrochemical company spread across more than 125 countries and employing 3,400 people. Arysta LifeScience wanted to standardize its email platforms on a cloud-based email service and initially chose Google Apps for Business. However, Google Apps was difficult to use and lacked the capabilities its employees had grown accustomed to in Office. Arysta LifeScience introduced Office 365 to its employees and found immediate value — the company is no longer a collection of disparate entities in different countries. It is a globally connected organization where employees can instantly find and communicate with one another.

• SEPCOIII. Based in Qingdao, China, SEPCOIII employs 5,800 people and designs and builds power plants around the world. The company wanted a single solution that employees could use to communicate and collaborate with other employees, partners and customers around the world. Staff had used Gmail but found it unreliable, while most found the calendar feature cumbersome and were not even using it. Because Gmail provided only limited offline functionality, it was difficult for employees to work remotely. With Office 365, SEPCOIII has a dependable and robust cloud-based solution that significantly reduces costs and boosts employee productivity.

• Sensia Hälsovård AB. Healthcare provider Sensia Hälsovård AB needed a single communication and collaboration platform to accommodate its rapid growth. Approximately 30 percent of its employees had been using Gmail, but found it cumbersome, unintuitive and when employees needed support, it was difficult for them to obtain it. The company eventually chose Office 365 and found it was a more professional service as built-in scalability is crucial to a rapidly growing company.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available in the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom. More information on Office Web Apps is available here, and more information about Office 365 is here and here.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 8, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Amy Hood was named Microsoft chief financial officer, succeeding outgoing CFO Peter Klein who will remain at Microsoft through the end of June to ensure a smooth transition. Hood becomes CFO effective immediately.

Amy Hood May 07, 2013 Chief Financial Officer

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“Amy brings the right talents and experiences to the role as we continue to strengthen our focus on devices and services,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive officer. “She has been an instrumental leader in the Microsoft Business Division (MBD), helping lead the transition to services with Office 365 and delivering strong financial and operational management throughout her time on the business.”

Hood, 41, joined Microsoft in December 2002 and currently serves as CFO of MBD, overseeing all financial strategy, management and reporting for the $24.1 billion business. During her time as CFO of MBD, Hood was also deeply involved in the strategy development and overall execution of the company’s successful acquisitions of Skype and Yammer. Previously, Hood served as chief of staff in the Server and Tools group, then ran the strategy and business development team in MBD before becoming CFO of the division in January 2010.

“I’m excited to step into this role and look forward to working closely again with our investors and shareholders,” Hood said. “Peter has built a world-class finance team, and I am set up well to continue the company’s strong discipline around costs and focus on driving shareholder value.”

Before joining Microsoft as a part of the investor relations group, she worked at Goldman Sachs in various roles including investment banking and capital markets groups. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, W ash. — May 8 , 2013 — Consumers in Roseville, Calif.; Arlington, Texas; Novi, Mich.; and Seattle soon will have access to the same excellent choice, value, service and engaging experience that Microsoft Corp.’s products and services offer in other markets across the United States and Canada.

The four Microsoft Specialty Store locations will open in the following markets:

• May 24: Westfield Galleria at Roseville (Roseville, Calif.)

• June 5: The Parks at Arlington (Arlington, Texas)

• June 5: Twelve Oaks (Novi, Mich.)

• June 21: Pacific Place (Seattle)

Microsoft announced the opening of five new Specialty Stores in April, and the company is expanding on its existing retail footprint in the U.S. to deliver an assortment of products, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro with Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Microsoft Office 365. Microsoft aims to provide a premium retail experience that is entertaining, educational and as easy as possible with these new locations. More information on the Specialty Stores can be found at http://www.microsoftstore.com.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspective from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — May 8, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced a TV white spaces pilot project in collaboration with the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and UhuruOne to provide affordable wireless broadband access to university students and faculty in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The collaboration will also enable UhuruOne, a local Internet service provider, to offer Windows 8 device and service packages to universities in Dar es Salaam.

TV white spaces technology is an innovative, tested and affordable method of providing wireless broadband by tapping into unused portions of wireless spectrum in the frequency bands generally used for television. Although Africa has the highest growth rates in the world for mobile broadband penetration, wireless broadband services remain largely unaffordable throughout the region. This pilot looks to improve that situation by focusing on broadband access in the essential area of education, an effort that will increase digital literacy, teach technical skills, advance e-learning and ultimately promote economic growth.

The pilot’s initial deployment in Dar es Salaam will target the University of Dar es Salaam, among others. “We anticipate that tens of thousands of Tanzanian students and faculty members will be able to take advantage of the wireless broadband packages offered by UhuruOne through the project,” said Dr. Hassan Mshinda, director general, COSTECH.

These integrated solutions will include a Windows 8 laptop or tablet, wireless broadband connectivity, and applications and services. The partners are working with banks to offer small loans to cover the cost of the packages.

In addition to offering affordable connectivity, devices and services, the pilot will hire a team of students as on-campus support staff for the network infrastructure. These students will benefit not only from employment but also from the opportunity to learn highly valued technical skills and gain qualifications for pursuing IT-related careers in the future.

“UhuruOne is not only an Internet service provider — we are social entrepreneurs working to reduce the digital divide,” said Mihayo Wilmore, founding partner, UhuruOne. “This project exemplifies our approach to connecting underserved populations. We are committed to increasing the affordability, accessibility and availability of broadband service in Tanzania and are pleased to be working with Microsoft and COSTECH in this critical effort.”

The Tanzania pilot follows a similar project Microsoft launched in Kenya in February (see related press release), which uses white spaces and solar power to deliver low-cost wireless broadband to rural locations without previous access to broadband or reliable electricity. These pilot projects and similar initiatives are part of the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative, a new series of investments designed to enable Microsoft to actively engage in Africa’s economic development and to improve its global competitiveness. As part of that effort, the company is committed to working with African governments to help drive a clear understanding of the legal and regulatory environment needed for white spaces technology to be commercially deployed on a large scale, to the benefit of all Africans.

“After announcing our ‘Mawingu’ pilot in Kenya, Microsoft has been flooded with requests from a wide range of companies and governments interested in developing similar projects,” said Paul Garnett, director at Microsoft’s Technology Policy Group. “White spaces technology and efficient spectrum management have a huge potential for expanding affordable broadband access throughout the world. We hope all governments will follow the example of forward-looking countries like Kenya, Tanzania and many others that have taken steps to support deployment of white spaces technology.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

DELHI, India — May 4, 2013 — ADB and Microsoft Corp. will showcase the Apps For Asia-Redesigning Development Program at the 46th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The program includes concepts for mobile applications that track water usage, consolidate the most sought-after emergency services, monitor medication use among tuberculosis patients and help public transit users plan travel. The program, supported by regional information technology associations, private-sector technology partners and universities, aims to harness the creative power of hundreds of software developers to create sustainable solutions for the economic, commercial and social benefit of governments, civil society and businesses in the region.

The Apps For Asia program included a series of national developer events in Australia, India, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. Of the 100 apps submitted, only the top three from each country are exhibited at the ADB’s 46th annual meeting in Delhi.

“Apps For Asia is a great showcase of the power of technology and the role it can play in fostering social and economic development,” said Bindu N. Lohani, vice president for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, ADB. ADB provided guidance on regional economic, social and development priorities to assist and inspire program participants.

Apps For Asia contestants built new apps addressing a wide range of issues, including apps to manage blood donor networks, help match youth with potential employers, coordinate indigenous housing projects, promote crime prevention and address diabetes management.

“We received an incredible amount of creative and impactful apps over these past few months, which represents the impact we can make in solving the region’s challenges through technology,” said John Cann, director, International Organizations, Microsoft. “With new technologies like cloud services and a range of mobile devices, apps can be developed quickly to reach more people in more ways.”

In addition to insight from the ADB, participants received training and access to Microsoft’s platform, spanning devices and cloud services, which enabled developers to create innovative Windows Azure, Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps. Further, the program helps local developers produce local solutions and foster innovative business models that have a positive impact on their communities. Here are the 15 finalists that showcased their apps at this year’s ADB annual meeting:

Australia

• Blue Clover revolutionizes the current diabetes management approach by utilizing mobile and cloud to improve the quality of life for the 347 million people affected by diabetes.

• Idex (Grand Domain) allows people to use a single digital identity to access online services, which helps improve security, eases management of directories and provides easier access to end users.

• xMeaning serves as an aid to learning foreign languages by allowing translators to produce a document in a source language and annotate it with translation information to help a learner better understand the context.

India

• Jeevan Pani provides citizens with access to water usage information and allows them to calculate and report their water usage and share it on social networking sites.

• Help-Me consolidates the most sought-after emergency services — police, fire and ambulance — with a phone app, operator console and reporting application.

• TOTS ensures that tuberculosis patients follow a proper treatment regimen to help cure the disease by managing records and calendars, mapping routes to nearby treatment centers, and taking photos of patients taking their medicine and immediately notifying their doctors and families.

• PathFinder eases the process of planning travel and using local public transportation by identifying the best transportation routes to get to desired locations.

Korea

• Filament supports real-time crime prevention through enhanced incident reporting and tracking, integrating with existing report management systems to help reduce response delays.

• Mapi provides real-time navigation advice, allowing users to post information and communicate about the best routes based on mode of transport, current traffic situations and crowd-sourced feedback.

Malaysia

• EPIC Hope connects and empowers communities in Malaysia to get involved in building sustainable housing for the indigenous people.

• Gnowledge supports education by allowing users to create, publish, share and take tests, and complete exercises and assignments.

• Blood R2 System addresses communities’ blood donation needs by matching blood demand and supply.

Philippines

• Codetoki eases the process of helping youth find employment by allowing applicants to improve their technology skills and by matching employers and applicants through a gamified platform.

• Blood Donors Network provides a solution to help communities meet their blood donation needs.

• Leanasset serves as a public transport monitoring system that enables commuters and transport operators to access transportation information and simplifies fleet management.

More information on Apps For Asia can be found at http://www.AppsForAsia.com.

About Asian Development Bank

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members — 48 from the region. In 2012, ADB assistance totaled $21.6 billion, including cofinancing of $8.3 billion.

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.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 29, 2013 — Cloud computing has the power to change the way students learn and staff teach, especially in rapidly transforming regions such as Central and Eastern Europe. To prepare students for a world based on technology, education institutions across the region, including School Center Skofja Loka (Slovenia), EDUCATIVA (Romania), TEI Kalamata (Greece), Kozminski University (Poland), University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business (Slovenia), and Vaikystes Sodas (Lithuania), are adopting Microsoft Office 365 to serve a variety of their cloud-computing needs for students and staff alike. Goals met through their focus on technology include the following:

• Improved communication. Office 365 enables students and staff to communicate across time zones and countries with the click of a mouse. As more and more young people become accustomed to real-time communication and “always on” technologies, Central and Eastern Europe schools are using Microsoft Lync Online to enrich their learning environments and student outcomes.

• Increased productivity. Office 365 helps schools eliminate inefficiencies in email management with Microsoft Exchange Online and improve knowledge-sharing, internal collaboration and document management with Microsoft SharePoint Online.

• Cost benefits without compromise. Office 365 enables IT departments to spend more resources focusing on mission-critical projects instead of performing costly maintenance. Since Office 365 offers the rich capabilities and familiar experience of Office as a cloud service that’s backed by Microsoft, IT administrators aren’t forced to compromise on privacy or security.

“Technology is a powerful engine of economic growth and competitiveness, enabling innovation that creates new companies, industries, opportunities and jobs around the world,” said Don Grantham, president for the CEE region at Microsoft. “We are honored to work with so many educational institutions, helping them to use technology to improve student outcomes as well as address their staff and faculty IT needs through enhanced collaboration, communications and productivity.”

School Center Skofja Loka Streamlines Management and Broadens Visibility

School Center Skofja Loka wanted to boost its visibility in the education field and find a solution for both students and staff that would be familiar, secured and cost-effective. Not only did Office 365 fill those requirements, it also provided the school with a streamlined way to manage its PCs and provide enhanced communication and collaboration among students and teachers. The school was also able to consolidate its global address list, which includes over 2,000 contacts.

EDUCATIVA Boosts Efficiency

After implementing Office 365 and eliminating IT inefficiencies, employees at EDUCATIVA, a provider of specialty counseling and education services to students in Romania, were able to efficiently respond to more than 25,000 email requests for information about its products and services and provide educational counseling services to 3,200 students during the 2011–2012 academic year. With Office 365, each EDUCATIVA consultant can now support 600 students with counseling services at a time — twice as many as before.

“The integration between Exchange Online and our existing Microsoft Outlook client is seamless,” said Bogdan Kochesch, business manager at EDUCATIVA. “Not only do we have a reliable email solution, we also have access to tools, like SharePoint, that help us manage documents, host our internal team sites, improve knowledge sharing and effectively organize internal collaboration.”

TEI Kalamata Upgrades Educational Services

Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Kalamata is one of the first public higher-education institutions in Greece to use Office 365. With the technology, the institution can now devote more funds and resources to research and education, all while upgrading to a secured, more reliable communication and collaboration platform. Office 365 enables the IT department to better focus on mission-critical projects as well. This includes two European Union-funded projects that aim to provide digital services, ranging from personnel management to administrative task support for the entire academic community of TEI Kalamata.

Students were familiar with the Office suite before the Office 365 deployment, which paved the way for an easy transition. Now, Office 365 has become an integral part of how students and academic staff communicate about homework assignments and other related activities.

Kozminski University Realizes Long-Term Vision

Kozminski University has a long-term vision for the development of and cooperation with its graduates. Office 365 has enabled the university to provide students with more secured email accounts that stay with them after graduation, which helps maintain their connection with the university. The ability for current students to consult with both lecturers and other students alike regardless of location via instant messaging and video calling with Lync Online extends that vision even further.

University of Maribor Increases Collaboration

The University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business, implemented Office 365 to increase communication and collaboration between its nearly 4,000 students and professors. In addition, Office 365 provides a consolidated solution that is cost-effective and has the potential to scale as the faculty continues to grow.

“Office 365 has provided all of our students and professors with centralized tools to effectively communicate and collaborate, and they are using it for a variety of tasks,” said Dr. Samo Bobek, dean at Faculty of Economics and Business. “Conferencing, open office hours, calendars, document sharing and email notifications to students are just some of the benefits we’ve already taken advantage of.”

Vaikystes Sodas Improves Communication

Good communication between educators and the families of children attending Vaikystes Sodas, a kindergarten alternative in Lithuania, is critical to providing quality services to their youth. The school chose Office 365 to help streamline the management of its internal documents and the school’s intranet to generate strong communication between teachers and parents.

“Parents of preschoolers need to know that their children spend their days safely and purposefully all while having fun,” said Austeja Landsbergiene, Ph.D., founder and director of Vaikystes Sodas. “The involvement of parents in the education process can only be ensured through daily communication, liaison and information sharing. The possibility to find all the information that they need, and to check it virtually anywhere, anytime on a computer, cellphone or tablet, will allow parents to be significantly more involved.”

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 25, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the pricing of its offerings of €550 million of senior unsecured notes and $1.950 billion of senior unsecured notes. The notes consist of the following tranches:

• €550 million of 2.625 percent notes due May 2, 2033

• $450 million of 1.000 percent notes due May 1, 2018

• $1 billion of 2.375 percent notes due May 1, 2023

• $500 million of 3.750 percent notes due May 1, 2043

Microsoft intends to use the net proceeds from the offerings for general corporate purposes, which may include, among other things, funding for working capital, capital expenditures, repurchases of capital stock, acquisitions and repayment of existing debt. The offerings are expected to close on May 2, 2013.

A copy of the prospectus relating to the euro-denominated offering may be obtained by contacting Merrill Lynch International at 222 Broadway, New York, NY 10038, by emailing dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com or by calling toll-free at 1 (800) 294-1322; or The Royal Bank of Scotland plc at 135 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3UR or by calling toll-free at 1 (866) 884-2071; or by contacting any of the other underwriters of the euro-denominated offering.

A copy of the prospectus relating to the U.S. dollar-denominated offering may be obtained by contacting Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated at 222 Broadway, New York NY 10038, by emailing dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com or by calling toll-free at 1 (800) 294-1322; or RBS Securities Inc. at 600 Washington Boulevard, Stamford CT 06091, or by calling toll-free at 1 (866) 884-2071; or by contacting any of the other underwriters of the U.S. dollar-denominated offering.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 25, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the release of a new, revised version of its HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for the company’s next-generation cloud services. This enables customers in the healthcare industry to leverage cloud solutions to coordinate care, improve patient health outcomes, and maintain compliance with privacy and security regulations issued under the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Addressing HIPAA is embedded in the DNA of Microsoft’s cloud solutions, and Microsoft updated its BAA to help healthcare organizations address compliance for the final omnibus HIPAA rule, which went into effect March 26. Microsoft’s updated BAA covers Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Windows Azure Core Services.

“Team communication and collaboration is the lifeblood of the health industry, and more and more healthcare organizations are realizing the productivity, care team communications and cost-savings benefits of cloud computing,” said Dennis Schmuland, chief health strategy officer, U.S. Health & Life Sciences, Microsoft. “Microsoft Office 365 is the only major cloud business productivity solution to programmatically offer a BAA built with the industry, and for the industry, to HIPAA-regulated customers, allowing healthcare organizations to be confident in the security and privacy of their patient data while empowering their staff to communicate and collaborate virtually anytime and almost anywhere.”

Microsoft collaborated with some of the leading U.S. medical schools and their HIPAA privacy counsel, as well as other public- and private-sector HIPAA-covered entities, in creating a BAA for its cloud services.

The refreshed BAA aligns with new regulatory language included in the final omnibus HIPAA rule, such as the new definition of a Business Associate, which includes any entity that maintains protected health information on behalf of a HIPAA-covered entity and has access to such data, even if it does not view the data. It also covers important data protections, such as Microsoft’s reporting requirements in accordance with the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, and Microsoft’s obligation to require its subcontractors who create, receive, maintain or transmit protected health information to agree to the same restrictions and conditions imposed on Microsoft pursuant to the applicable requirements of the HIPAA Security Rule. Allscripts is among the first organizations to leverage Microsoft’s updated BAA.

“We have programmatically offered a BAA for our healthcare customers since the launch of Office 365 nearly two years ago and have subsequently included our other cloud offerings such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Windows Azure Core Services under the BAA,” said Hemant Pathak, assistant general counsel, Microsoft. “Addressing the clarifications and changes incorporated in the final omnibus HIPAA rule reaffirms Microsoft’s commitment to comply with security and privacy requirements and maintain its status as a transparent and trusted data steward for healthcare organizations leveraging the cloud.”

Office 365 is the first and only major cloud business productivity service to adopt the rigorous requirements of the federal government’s HIPAA Business Associate standards. Where the provision of services include storage of and access to electronic protected health information by a cloud provider, Microsoft’s substantial commitment to compliance helps healthcare customers placing protected health information in the cloud avoid potentially significant liability under HIPAA for failure to comply with applicable HIPAA contracting and safeguard requirements.

Microsoft offers a complete range of public, private and hybrid cloud solutions that support covered healthcare entities’ compliance needs and enables those organizations to move to the cloud at their own pace. Rather than using separate cloud vendors for productivity, collaboration, application hosting, data storage and relationship management, Microsoft’s customers can consolidate on one cloud, with one infrastructure partner with a common security and privacy framework specifically tailored to help address the compliance needs of healthcare-covered entities. To date, several dozen large HIPAA-covered entities across the healthcare, academic, commercial and government agency space have executed the BAA for Microsoft Online Services.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available in the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, W ash. — April 22, 201 3 — Small businesses are losing more than US$24 billion in productivity each year when nontechnical employees, referred to as involuntary IT managers (IITMs), are tasked with managing their companies’ IT solutions. This loss is a direct result of IITMs taking time away from primary business activities, according to an AMI-Partners small-business study commissioned by Microsoft Corp.

The Involuntary IT Manager study takes a broad look at the prevalence of the IITM role in nine countries in North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, focusing specifically on the adverse business productivity impact of IITMs in small business in five countries: Australia, Brazil, Chile, India and the United States. Surveying 538 IITMs across nationally representative samples of small businesses with 100 employees or less in the five countries, the AMI-Partners research study determined that approximately 3.8 million small businesses managed internal IT by IITMs. Although such small businesses spent US$83 billion on IT and communications, paradoxically they lost US$24 billion in productivity trying to manage their internal IT. The survey also found that small businesses’ IITMs think cloud-based solutions can help alleviate some of the burden of managing IT.

The D rawbacks of H aving an IITM

On average, IITMs lose six hours per week (around 300 hours per year) of business productivity while managing IT, according to AMI-Partners. The AMI-Partners white paper stated that while some IITMs are confident in their technical skills, most find their general work productivity suffers when their work time is diverted to managing IT issues. Key study findings include these:

• Thirty percent of all surveyed IITMs feel that IT management is a nuisance.

• Twenty-six percent indicated they do not feel qualified to manage IT.

• Six in 10 IITMs want to simplify their company’s technology solutions to alleviate the difficulty of managing IT day-to-day.

The Involuntary IT Manager study also found that when IITMs work at small businesses with 15 or more employees, their firms lose even more productivity time than IITMs working at companies with fewer employees.

“Many small businesses don’t have the budget for formal IT support, so they rely on the company’s most tech-savvy individual to manage their technology,” said Andy Bose, founder, chairman and CEO at AMI-Partners. “As our research shows, relying on an Involuntary IT Manager can have an adverse impact on small businesses’ productivity, which can negatively affect revenue and translates into a very high opportunity cost. These companies can potentially leverage cloud services to alleviate the need for day-to-day in-house IT support with positive impact on their business productivity.”

Small -B usiness C loud A doption

AMI-Partners found that IITMs are showing an interest in leveraging the cloud during the next 12 months to manage their IT needs. Among the IITMs surveyed in the five countries, the following was learned:

• Thirty-three percent (approximately one-third) are likely to shift more IT spending toward hosted or cloud solutions.

• Thirty-six percent are interested in a productivity and collaboration suite.

Although IITMs older than 50 spent the most time managing IT, the study found they are also the most likely to devote their limited IT budgets to acquiring cloud solutions and purchasing online productivity suites. Among the top concerns for IITMs in deploying cloud solutions were these:

• Security and privacy (66 percent)

• Reliability (61 percent)

• The ability to integrate with existing IT investments (53 percent)

• Limited features (46 percent)

“The cloud when delivered right is a game-changer, providing small businesses with the IT solutions they need to solve their most challenging small-business technology concerns,” said Thomas Hansen, vice president of SMB Worldwide at Microsoft. “With Microsoft cloud solutions, the job of the Involuntary IT Manager gets a lot easier.”

Microsoft democratizes IT for small businesses by providing enterprise-class solutions that level the IT playing field for small businesses. Office 365, Windows Intune, Windows Azure and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online are Microsoft’s most complete cloud services to date. They provide small businesses with access to powerful applications from anywhere and on multiple devices with both privacy and security features built into each solution. More information about how cloud-based solutions from Microsoft, such as Office 365, can help small businesses can be found at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us. The complete Involuntary IT Manager survey can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/smb.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, W ash. — April 22, 201 3 — Small businesses are losing more than US$24 billion in productivity each year when nontechnical employees, referred to as involuntary IT managers (IITMs), are tasked with managing their companies’ IT solutions. This loss is a direct result of IITMs taking time away from primary business activities, according to an AMI-Partners small-business study commissioned by Microsoft Corp.

The Involuntary IT Manager study takes a broad look at the prevalence of the IITM role in nine countries in North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, focusing specifically on the adverse business productivity impact of IITMs in small business in five countries: Australia, Brazil, Chile, India and the United States. Surveying 538 IITMs across nationally representative samples of small businesses with 100 employees or less in the five countries, the AMI-Partners research study determined that approximately 3.8 million small businesses managed internal IT by IITMs. Although such small businesses spent US$83 billion on IT and communications, paradoxically they lost US$24 billion in productivity trying to manage their internal IT. The survey also found that small businesses’ IITMs think cloud-based solutions can help alleviate some of the burden of managing IT.

The D rawbacks of H aving an IITM

On average, IITMs lose six hours per week (around 300 hours per year) of business productivity while managing IT, according to AMI-Partners. The AMI-Partners white paper stated that while some IITMs are confident in their technical skills, most find their general work productivity suffers when their work time is diverted to managing IT issues. Key study findings include these:

• Thirty percent of all surveyed IITMs feel that IT management is a nuisance.

• Twenty-six percent indicated they do not feel qualified to manage IT.

• Six in 10 IITMs want to simplify their company’s technology solutions to alleviate the difficulty of managing IT day-to-day.

The Involuntary IT Manager study also found that when IITMs work at small businesses with 15 or more employees, their firms lose even more productivity time than IITMs working at companies with fewer employees.

“Many small businesses don’t have the budget for formal IT support, so they rely on the company’s most tech-savvy individual to manage their technology,” said Andy Bose, founder, chairman and CEO at AMI-Partners. “As our research shows, relying on an Involuntary IT Manager can have an adverse impact on small businesses’ productivity, which can negatively affect revenue and translates into a very high opportunity cost. These companies can potentially leverage cloud services to alleviate the need for day-to-day in-house IT support with positive impact on their business productivity.”

Small -B usiness C loud A doption

AMI-Partners found that IITMs are showing an interest in leveraging the cloud during the next 12 months to manage their IT needs. Among the IITMs surveyed in the five countries, the following was learned:

• Thirty-three percent (approximately one-third) are likely to shift more IT spending toward hosted or cloud solutions.

• Thirty-six percent are interested in a productivity and collaboration suite.

Although IITMs older than 50 spent the most time managing IT, the study found they are also the most likely to devote their limited IT budgets to acquiring cloud solutions and purchasing online productivity suites. Among the top concerns for IITMs in deploying cloud solutions were these:

• Security and privacy (66 percent)

• Reliability (61 percent)

• The ability to integrate with existing IT investments (53 percent)

• Limited features (46 percent)

“The cloud when delivered right is a game-changer, providing small businesses with the IT solutions they need to solve their most challenging small-business technology concerns,” said Thomas Hansen, vice president of SMB Worldwide at Microsoft. “With Microsoft cloud solutions, the job of the Involuntary IT Manager gets a lot easier.”

Microsoft democratizes IT for small businesses by providing enterprise-class solutions that level the IT playing field for small businesses. Office 365, Windows Intune, Windows Azure and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online are Microsoft’s most complete cloud services to date. They provide small businesses with access to powerful applications from anywhere and on multiple devices with both privacy and security features built into each solution. More information about how cloud-based solutions from Microsoft, such as Office 365, can help small businesses can be found at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us. The complete Involuntary IT Manager survey can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/smb.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 19, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today hosted the kickoff event for its Microsoft YouthSpark initiative in Atlanta by bringing together more than 150 leading educators, government officials and nonprofits to discuss the state of youth education in the area. As part of the YouthSpark Atlanta launch, Microsoft signed an education alliance agreement with Morehouse College, one of the leading private Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the country.

“At Morehouse, our focus is on educating and preparing leaders who can make a difference in their communities,” said Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr., president, Morehouse College. “We know Microsoft shares that focus, and we’re excited to partner with the company on this unique education alliance.”

The education alliance between Microsoft and Morehouse will bring key components of the YouthSpark programs to Morehouse’s student body. These programs include the following:

• Microsoft IT Academy. This offers students and faculty members access to free training and IT skills training, which gives students the skills employers demand and the tools to build successful careers in technology.

• Microsoft Innovation Lab. The Innovation Lab will provide technology resources to students, educators and entrepreneurial members of the Morehouse community. These resources include a new computer lab, collaboration tools such as SMART Boards, and programs to help enhance technical skills for Morehouse students and the surrounding community.

• Campus recruitment. In collaboration with the United Negro College Fund, Microsoft will conduct recruiting visits to Morehouse, targeting undergrad and MBA graduate students. Microsoft also will host a Microsoft Recruiting Day at Morehouse to engage and interview students for open jobs at the company.

• Leadership series. Microsoft executives will engage in executive lectures and presidential chats to share insights on running a global technology business. In addition, select Morehouse students will learn more about specific Microsoft subsidiaries by visiting Microsoft offices in the United States or abroad.

Through these programs, Microsoft aims to inspire Morehouse students to explore careers in technology and business. Participating Morehouse students will receive unparalleled access to Microsoft technology, training and executive mentorship — something they cannot get in a normal classroom setting.

“Morehouse is recognized as one of the best liberal arts institutions in the country,” said Marietta Davis, general manager, Greater Southeast District, Microsoft. “With this new alliance, the Morehouse community — students, faculty and local educators — will get best-in-class technology and real-world mentorship to further prepare their students for success outside the classroom.”

The alliance between Morehouse and Microsoft is part of a broader partnership between Microsoft and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In November, Microsoft signed a similar education alliance with Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., to enable its students to get firsthand technology training and to explore careers in technology.

$7.5 Million Donation to Leading Non p rofit Youth Villages

In addition to the education alliance with Morehouse College, Microsoft announced a $7.5 million software donation to Youth Villages, one of the nation’s largest providers of help to children with emotional and behavioral problems and their families. This year, Youth Villages will help more than 20,000 children, families and young people from more than 20 states and the District of Columbia.

“Microsoft is one of our most important partners,” said Patrick Lawler, CEO, Youth Villages. “Since 1997, its generosity has allowed us to provide the best computer technology to our kids. This grant means Microsoft’s total support of Youth Villages’ children comes to nearly $13 million, which has helped our youth learn computer skills and allowed us to support our staff with modern clinical records and office technology.”

The $7.5 million donation announced today will go toward updating the technology in Youth Villages’ residential campuses, such as its Douglasville, Ga., location. The Douglasville campus will receive updates including the latest Microsoft online learning curriculum to help students learn the fundamentals in word processing and presentations. In addition, Youth Villages’ transitional living program participants will use the technology to study for their GED certificates, apply for college, prepare resumes and look for employment.

Youth Villages’ other residential campuses in Tennessee, Massachusetts and Oregon will benefit from the technology donation, as well. The grant also provides the technology to enhance internal and external communications systems for more than 2,700 Youth Villages staff members who perform critical functions each day, such as accessing medical records, documenting treatment plans, and reporting to parents and referral partners.

A Conversation on Youth Education in Atlanta

Today’s YouthSpark Connections event in Atlanta will feature a number of distinguished civic leaders from the Atlanta area. Those scheduled to attend include Bernice King, CEO, The King Center; Dr. John Wilson, president, Morehouse College; Dr. John Barge, Georgia State School Superintendent; Wes Moore, best-selling author; Lenny Springs, senior advisor, U.S. Department of Education; Ceasar Mitchell, president, Atlanta City Council; Sheila Lienhart, board member, Portland Oregon Public Schools Foundation; Byron Amos, vice chair, Atlanta Board of Education; Cecily Harsch-Kinnane, Atlanta Board of Education; and Kelly Marlow, Cherokee County Board of Education.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

WASHINGTON — April 17, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as recipients of this year’s Microsoft Dynamics Customer Excellence award. The award is presented annually to Microsoft Dynamics customers that most effectively use technology to transform their organizations. Microsoft also announced 10 additional federal approaches to using the solution, and these customers have joined more than 200 federal organizations that have moved to the Microsoft Dynamics platform to accomplish strategic modernization initiatives amid limited budget environments.

In addition to reducing costs, federal government organizations are adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM to better align with Executive Order 13571, which calls for agencies to embrace technologies to more efficiently provide citizen services. Federal leaders are leveraging the platform in place of expensive legacy systems in an effort to modernize their infrastructures and streamline operations.

“Federal government leaders are balancing the reality of significant budget cuts with the need to meet increasing citizen service expectations in this era of digital government,” said Greg Myers, vice president, U.S. Federal Government at Microsoft. “A number of agencies are adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM to overcome complex challenges, cut costs and modernize legacy IT environments. We applaud their vision and leadership in driving a significant impact for their constituents.”

Award Winners Recognized for Transforming, Innovating

The Microsoft Dynamics Customer Excellence award is annually presented to Microsoft Dynamics customers that most effectively use technology to transform their organizations. This year’s recipients include the following:

• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) transformed the Veterans Benefits Administration National Call Centers and its Pension Call Center by using Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Through the VA’s Veterans Relationship Management (VRM) initiative, the VA used Microsoft Dynamics CRM to integrate access to 13 different databases, which previously had to be individually queried and are now viewed simultaneously. This not only makes the call agents’ jobs easier, enabling them to recall veteran information more quickly, it also gives veterans timely access to healthcare, claims status and business information. “Microsoft Dynamics has helped VRM provide a platform to help millions of veterans and their families each year,” said Maureen Ellenberger, director of VRM. “To date, over 1 million calls have been better supported using CRM. We are already planning expanded deployments to other VA call centers.” In addition, the Federal Case Management Tool (FCMT), also built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, is greatly supporting wounded warriors as they transition into VA care. The modernization of the VRM and FCMT programs has enabled the VA to strengthen its services to veterans.

• The United States Air Force continues its role as a visionary leader using information technology to project global military power through air, space and cyberspace. The implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps the Air Force to create, manage and advance its capabilities in workforce management, mission planning, event management and visitor access and to offer more efficient access to personnel records, resulting in improved mission execution.

Federal Government Agencies Leveraging Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft also announced that additional federal customers have joined more than 200 federal government organizations using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to achieve cost savings, help preserve safety and security, and streamline service delivery to improve constituent experiences.

• Microsoft supports the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all military departments and the Unified Combatant Commands in their mission to deter war and protect the security of the United States. These organizations use Microsoft Dynamics solutions for intelligence gathering, mission planning, operations, workforce management, onboarding, correspondence and targeted outreach, task management, and more.

• In support of multiple Department of Homeland Security (DHS)-wide initiatives, a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) solution is being deployed using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. This SaaS offering deploys and scales business operations such as records management, scheduling, reporting, tracking campaigns, mission and workforce activities, and budgets. Within the DHS, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is used by the Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Coast Guard.

• The Risk Management Agency (RMA) of the United States Department of Agriculture provides insurance to help preserve the economic stability of America’s farmers and ranchers. In deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the RMA has access to a more comprehensive view of each participant in its agricultural insurance program and individualized dashboards for better insight across its operations. As a result of the implementation, RMA has strengthened compliance and can handle key reporting tasks five times faster than on the previous system.

• As a member of the Farm Credit System, AgFirst provides funding and services to 22 affiliated agricultural credit associations in 15 states in the eastern United States and Puerto Rico. In turn, these agriculture credit associations serve more than 80,000 eligible farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses. The associations needed to strengthen their customer relationships to retain and grow loan portfolios and to deploy an economical yet robust solution that met each association’s unique business needs. To date, AgFirst has achieved significant business and operational benefits including $2 million in cost savings for member associations AgChoice Farm Credit and MidAtlantic Farm Credit, more efficient loan processing, improved customer service shown through customer satisfaction ratings of 98 to 100 percent, and enhanced lending decisions.

• Nearly 200,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in 139 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation. To support its mission, the Peace Corps built unique solutions on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. To leverage the reusability and investment in the Dynamics platform, the Peace Corps is automating its grants management process to support a modernization strategy that incorporates several line-of-business practices across the organization. As a result, the Peace Corps is lowering costs, improving business processes and more effectively upholding its mission.

• The U.S. Department of State leverages Microsoft Dynamics CRM for its Tracking Responses and Inquiries for Passports (TRIP) solution. TRIP supports the Consular Systems and Technology mission of maintaining records of passport applicants who call the National Passport Information Center to inquire about their passport application status. The solution provides highly secure and accurate access information, allowing customer service representatives to more efficiently review Travel Document Issuance System passport application records. The customer service representatives are now able to more effectively search case history, ensure greater collaboration across departments and deliver higher-quality service.

• INTERPOL Washington supports almost 18,000 U.S. law enforcement agencies and 189 member countries seeking assistance in investigations of fugitives, financial fraud, drug violations, terrorism and violent crimes. For INTERPOL Washington, the mission is particularly daunting with more than 2,000 daily inquiries related to criminal activity across the globe. In partnership with Microsoft Consulting Service, INTERPOL Washington deployed a solution built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM to automate case tasks, more efficiently allocate personnel resources and resolve caseloads that have grown by 33 percent over previous years.

• The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Division of Human Services turned to Hitachi Consulting to implement a full life-cycle case management solution, built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which has helped the BIA automate data management and access, streamline operations, and integrate with other organizational units to allow case workers to be significantly more efficient and productive in providing social services for those in need. “The impact we make goes far beyond business efficiency,” said Sue Settles, chief, Division of Human Services BIA. “With this new system, our social workers are able to deliver our programs more effectively in some of the most isolated and economically depressed areas of the United States.”

• To gain a holistic view of members, services and needs, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, which serves 200,000 members worldwide, deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the help of Microsoft partner Artic IT Inc. Members receive faster service, and the tribe’s care agents, IT staff and elected leaders benefit from a solution that is easy to use, tailor and manage independently of third parties. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is now a pivotal element in the 100-year plan to ensure the success of the Choctaw people.

More about Microsoft Dynamics and its impact in federal government can be found at the Microsoft in Government website.

About Microsoft Dynamics

At the heart of every successful organization are the people who make things happen. Microsoft Dynamics designs modern business solutions that empower individuals with intuitive tools that allow them to do their best work. Our proactive, easy-to-use business applications adapt to the way people and systems work, enabling organizations to rapidly deploy and be forward-looking in an ever-changing world.

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.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 17, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today released the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report volume 14 (SIRv14). In addition to analyzing prevalent threats from across the globe, the data revealed an important trend related to antivirus software (Antivirus). The study showed 2.5 out of 10 computers on average do not use up-to-date Antivirus. The report shows that without this vital protection layer, computers are 5.5 times more likely to be infected with malware. Antivirus helps guard against viruses, remove infections and protect people’s privacy.

“People intuitively understand the importance of locking their front doors to prevent their homes from being broken into. Computer security is no different. Surfing the Internet without up-to-date Antivirus is like leaving your front door open to criminals,” said Tim Rains, director, Trustworthy Computing, Microsoft. “With the release of this new research, Microsoft is urging people to make sure they have up-to-date Antivirus installed on their computers.”

SIRv14 explains some of the most prevalent threats facing consumers online:

• Think before you click. Microsoft detected and removed malicious email attachments from almost 3 million computers in the fourth quarter of 2012. People encounter this type of threat when opening documents, such as a PDF or Word document, that have been maliciously crafted and sent to them in email. Antivirus can help prevent infection from this type of attack.

• Bargain hunters beware. Keygen, a threat family commonly bundled with malware, was detected almost 7 million times in the fourth quarter of 2012. People seeking free or discounted software, movies or games online increase the risk of encountering this type of threat. Antivirus can help protect against it

Despite the benefits of Antivirus, many people do not realize they are unprotected. There are a number of reasons 2.5 out of 10 computers are unprotected:

• A trial period has expired or the software is out of date.

• The Antivirus was disabled by malware.

• People may not realize the importance of Antivirus so they do not install it.

To find out if people are using valid and up-to-date Antivirus, Microsoft recommends they go to their system control panels to check their computers’ security settings. If they do not have Antivirus installed, they can download it from a trusted vendor. If they have Windows 8, then Microsoft’s Antivirus is installed.

“Regardless of whether you use a free or paid-for solution, the importance of Antivirus cannot be overstated,” Rains said. “By taking the proper measures to protect your computer, including the most basic step of installing Antivirus, you can dramatically reduce your risk of becoming a victim.”

Microsoft releases the SIR twice a year to inform the public about the most prevalent global threats so they can protect themselves and their organizations. SIRv14 includes data from the second half of 2012 and contains threat intelligence from more than 1 billion computers worldwide.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 16, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. and Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn, signed a worldwide patent licensing agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for devices running the Android and Chrome OS, including smartphones, tablets and televisions. While the contents of the agreement are confidential, the parties indicate that Microsoft will receive royalties from Hon Hai under the agreement. Hon Hai joins a growing list of contract manufacturing and original design manufacturing companies with Android and Chrome patent licenses.

“We are pleased that the list of companies benefitting from Microsoft’s Android licensing program now includes the world’s largest contract manufacturer, Hon Hai,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of the Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft. “By licensing both brand name companies and their contract manufacturers, we have successfully increased the overall effectiveness and global reach of the program.”

“Hon Hai is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer that holds more than 54,000 patents worldwide,” said Samuel Fu, director of the Intellectual Property Department at Hon Hai. “We recognize and respect the importance of international efforts that seek to protect intellectual property. The licensing agreement with Microsoft represents those efforts and our continued support of international trade agreements that facilitate implementation of effective patent protection.”

Microsoft’s Commitment to Licensing Intellectual Property

The patent agreement is another example of the important role intellectual property (IP) plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant technology ecosystem. Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 1,100 licensing agreements and continues to develop programs that open Microsoft’s IP portfolio for customers, partners and competitors. The program was developed to provide access to Microsoft’s significant R&D investments and its growing, broad patent and IP portfolio. Microsoft’s specific patent licensing program for Android device makers has resulted in signed license agreements with numerous companies including Samsung, LG, HTC, Acer and Barnes & Noble.

More information about Microsoft’s licensing programs is available at http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

April 7, 2013 – BOAO, Hainan, China – The Hainan government and Microsoft China today announced comprehensive collaboration to enable Hainan in its ambition to become the “Hawaii of China,” transform Hainan into an international tourism destination and a powerhouse of software development. In the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed today, both parties agreed to form a long-term partnership, cooperate strategically on incubating the application of informatization, nurturing the software industry, developing the next generation of IT, cultivating talent, and protecting intellectual property rights. Guests from Hainan government and Microsoft present at the signing ceremony included Luo Baoming, secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee, Sun Xinyang, secretary-general of Hainan province, Li Guoliang, vice governor of Hainan Province, and Orlando Ayala, corporate vice president, chairman of Emerging Markets, Ralph Haupter, corporate vice president, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region, Ya-Qin Zhang, corporate vice president, chairman of Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group, and Sandy Gupta, CTO of Microsoft China.

Luo Baoming, secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee, said, “Hainan is committed to becoming a world-class international tourism island characterized by sustainable and efficient, low-carbon local industries and the information technology is the critical foundation for realizing this. By partnering with world-leading IT companies like Microsoft, Hainan can leverage innovative technologies to upgrade and enhance industries including tourism, real estate, transportation, maritime and agriculture, and accelerate Hainan’s transformation into an international tourism island. The MOU reflects both sides’ vision and commitment to Hainan’s bright, sustainable future.”

Orlando Ayala, corporate vice president, chairman of Emerging Markets, extended his congratulations on the partnership, adding, “Information technology and intelligent applications are playing an increasingly important role in developing more sustainable industries, including the tourism industry. This is vitally important because Asia Pacific is quickly becoming the world’s most popular region for tourists, and China is expected to become the leading tourism destination over the next decade. Microsoft has always been committed to helping industries transform through technological innovation and we look forward to working closely with the Hainan government to enhance the competitiveness of Hainan’s tourism industry and accelerate their transformation into a sustainable international tourism island.”

Ralph Haupter, corporate vice president, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region, said, “Microsoft is honored to be in this strategic partnership with the Hainan government. Over the last 20 years, Microsoft has invested throughout the country as a part of its long-term commitment to partnering in developing an innovative, competitive and talented China. With comprehensive strengths in devices and services, from client to cloud, Microsoft China has the capabilities and is committed to supporting the Hainan government in promoting local industries, driving economic transformation and creating a model of eco-friendly international tourism.”

As the only tropical island in China, Hainan is the weathervane of China’s tourism industry. The construction of Hainan as an “international tourism island” was elevated in status to one of national strategy as it is seen as playing an essential role in China’s overall development. Under the MOU, Microsoft and the Hainan government will work together to improve Hainan’s competitiveness in information technology and help develop information-based industries, which will facilitate the smooth, rapid upgrade of the local industrial sector and support intelligent tourism industry growth.

Microsoft demonstrated tailor-made, forward-looking tourism solutions at the Bo’ao Forum, including innovative service experiences such as no-contact, motion sensing and multi-touch technology; the integration of the Hainan International Tourism Island portal and Bing Travel; a “space-time tunnel” and much more.

Technology innovation has become a driving force for the sustainable development of cities. With Microsoft’s extensive experience in software service outsourcing and cloud services, as well as the strengths of its products, technology and global resources, the company hopes to enable the nation’s governments and enterprises to improve their core competitiveness through informatization, to accelerate economic transformation and build better, flexible more connected cities.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 10, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that the power and automation technology company ABB will deploy Microsoft Office 365 and Yammer to its employees worldwide.

With about 145,000 employees in 100 countries, ABB is transitioning from multiple IT collaboration and messaging solutions to Office 365 to provide a single platform for productivity, communication, collaboration and enterprise social in the cloud.

“Office 365 and Yammer will enable us to transform communication and collaboration among our employees, surfacing the best and most innovative ideas across the organization,” said Andy Tidd, chief information officer at ABB Group.

Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner emphasizes: “Strong internal communications are the lifeblood of a company’s success, and ABB’s decision as a global technology leader to deploy Office 365 and Yammer will help it realize its vision for empowering employees with new ways of working via enterprise social and the cloud. When you remove barriers to productivity and innovation and enable employees to collaborate and communicate even more freely and seamlessly across organizational and geographical boundaries, incredible things happen.”

Office 365 integrates a number of typical functionalities that employees use in their daily work. The mail service works seamlessly with the online meeting and videoconferencing service. Office 365 simplifies online meetings, and in large organizations such as ABB that can typically reduce travel costs by 15 to 20 percent.

ABB is rapidly embracing enterprise social networking solutions, implementing Yammer as its companywide platform to increase collaboration and knowledge sharing across the organization. ABB also plans to take full advantage of the planned integration between Office 365 and Yammer.

About ABB

ABB (http://www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 145,000 people. The company invests more than $1.3 billion annually in research and development. In November 2012, ABB announced it had developed the first hybrid breaker for high-voltage direct current, enabling a new generation of super transmission grids. (http://new.abb.com/about/hvdc-grid).

About Yammer

Yammer (www.yammer.com) is a best-in-class Enterprise Social Network used by more than 200,000 organizations worldwide — including 85 percent of the Fortune 500 — to foster team collaboration, empower employees, drive business agility and promote organizational connectedness. Yammer’s freemium business model lets customers see the value of Yammer before upgrading to the premium offering. Founded in 2008, Yammer is now part of the Microsoft Office Division.

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.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

LAS VEGAS — April 9, 2013 — Today at the National Association of Broadcasters Show, Microsoft Corp. and NBC Sports Group announced they are partnering to use Windows Azure Media Services across NBC Sports’ digital platforms, including NBCSports.com, NBCOlympics.com and GolfChannel.com.

Through the agreement, which rolls out this summer, Microsoft will provide both live-streaming and on-demand viewing services for more than 5,000 hours of games and events on devices, such as smartphones, tablets and PCs. These services will allow sports fans to be able to relive or catch up on their favorite events and highlights that aired on NBC Sports Group platforms.

“NBC Sports Group is thrilled to be working with Microsoft,” said Rick Cordella, senior vice president and general manager of digital media at NBC Sports Group. “More and more of our audience is viewing our programming on Internet-enabled devices, so quality of service is important. Also, our programming reaches a national audience and needs to be available under challenging network conditions. We chose Microsoft because of its reputation for delivering an end-to-end experience that allows for seamless, high-quality video for both live and video-on-demand streaming.”

NBC Sports Group’s unique portfolio of properties includes the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, “Sunday Night Football,” Notre Dame Football, Premier League soccer, Major League Soccer, Formula One and IndyCar racing, PGA TOUR, U.S. Open golf, French Open tennis, Triple Crown horse racing, and more.

“Microsoft is constantly looking for innovative ways to utilize the power of the cloud, and we see Windows Azure Media Services as a high-demand offering,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president at Microsoft. “As consumer demand for viewing media online on any available device grows, our partnership with NBC Sports Group gives us the opportunity to provide the best of cloud technology and bring world-class sporting events to audiences when and where they want them.”

Microsoft has a broad partner ecosystem, which extends to the cloud. To bring the NBC Sports Group viewing experience to life, Microsoft is working with iStreamPlanet Co. and its live video workflow management product Aventus. Aventus will integrate with Windows Azure Media Services to provide a scalable, reliable, live video workflow solution to help bring NBC Sports Group programming to the cloud.

NBC Sports Group and iStreamPlanet join a growing list of companies, including European Tour, deltatre, Dolby Laboratories Inc. and Digital Rapids Corp., which are working with Windows Azure to bring their broadcasting audiences or technologies to the cloud.

In addition to Media Services, Windows Azure core services include Mobile Services, Cloud Services, Virtual Machines, Websites and Big Data. Customers can go to http://www.windowsazure.com for more information and to start their free trial.

About NBC Sports Group

When the Comcast-NBCUniversal transaction was completed in January 2011, the sports assets of the two companies combined to form the NBC Sports Group, which serves sports fans 24/7 with premier live events, insightful studio shows, and compelling original programming. The sports media company consists of a unique array of broadcast television, cable television, radio and digital sports assets, including NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel, 11 NBC Sports Regional Networks, NBC Sports Radio and all of their respective digital properties. The NBC Sports Group possesses an unparalleled collection of television rights agreements, partnering with some of the most prestigious sports properties in the world: the International Olympic Committee and United States Olympic Committee, the NFL, NHL, PGA TOUR, PGA of America, USGA, Churchill Downs, Premier League, MLS, Tour de France, French Open, Formula One, IndyCar and many more.

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.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

LAS VEGAS — April 8, 2013 — Today at the Microsoft Management Summit, Microsoft Corp. showcased companies relying on Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center to adapt to the changing needs of their businesses and customers.

“Companies around the world are using our technologies to innovate for their businesses. Our focus is to help IT organizations expand their capabilities and embrace the opportunities of cloud computing,” said Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of Windows Server and System Center Division. Anderson delivered the keynote address at the Summit and blogged about Microsoft’s Cloud OS strategy.

Powering Pizza Delivery

A pizza delivery pioneer, Domino’s Pizza has computerized nearly all aspects of store operations, from inventory to order taking to staff scheduling. The company moved to Windows Server Hyper-V for better reliability and management of its in-store servers running the Domino’s Pulse point-of-sale (POS) application.

Hyper-V is currently deployed in 750 stores and will be rolled out to more than 4,000 in the United States, as well as international locations. Using System Center to centrally manage over 15,000 servers and devices, Domino’s has cut virtualization-related help desk calls by 99 percent.

“If online ordering goes down, a third of our business evaporates. It’s that simple. It’s absolutely critical that our store servers remain running and, with Hyper-V, we’ve dramatically reduced store downtime,” said Lance Shinabarger, vice president, Global Infrastructure, Domino’s Pizza. “From pricing to management, performance and reliability gains, Hyper-V and System Center have been a huge win for Domino’s.”

Closing the “Dev-Ops” Gap

The Xerox India Development Center (IDC) supports software development for customers all over the world. IDC needed to help its developers better collaborate with customers and a more reliable way to quickly test and fix applications. The organization built a Microsoft private cloud with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center that dynamically replicates customer datacenter environments. Using System Center with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, the operations team can efficiently provide developers with deep insights into applications for real-time troubleshooting and optimization. As a result, IDC improved developer productivity by approximately 40 percent and cut costs by about 30 percent.

“Microsoft is my cloud platform vendor of choice because it provides the complete, integrated stack of infrastructure, application platform and development tools,” said Raman Padmanabhan, senior vice president and chief information officer, Commercial Business Process Outsourcing, Xerox Commercial Solutions. “We want our developers to be able to work across multiple development projects and sites with ease. They now have the tools and infrastructure they need to accelerate the ever-shrinking write-test-debug cycle.”

Building Productivity and Cost Savings

Pedcor Companies develops, builds and manages housing communities, including construction of more than 17,000 apartment units in the U.S. The company needed to improve datacenter availability and give employees in 77 remote offices better access to data and important applications, such as the Pedcor Management Application for collecting and processing rental fees. By replacing VMware infrastructure with a Microsoft private cloud built with Windows Server and System Center, Pedcor has reduced downtime by 40 percent, saved US$560,000 in IT costs and enabled reliable remote access to corporate resources.

“We can automate the management and delivery of healthy applications, which boosts the productivity of our people in the field,” said Sumeeth Evans, vice president of Information Technology, Pedcor Companies. “Microsoft’s technologies free my team to focus on new solutions for the business and give us a platform for the future.”

More news about MMS is available on the STB News Bytes blog, while information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available in the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 3, 2013 — The Obama for America campaign selected Microsoft Lync as the communications platform for hundreds of campaign staff in its Chicago headquarters and in some states for the 2012 elections. The campaign needed to upgrade from a private branch exchange (PBX) system to a more flexible cloud-based solution that could scale and adapt to support thousands of mission-critical calls in multiple locations at any given time.

“When the campaign began in 2011, we couldn’t predict how big it would get or when, so scalability and deployment efficiency were two of the most important features for us,” said Rajeev Chopra, president of the MIS Department Inc. in Chicago and chief information officer at Obama for America. “Controlling our systems with Lync also provided much more flexibility.”

As part of the deployment, the campaign’s primary phone number and headquarters voter hotline were managed through Lync in order to handle calls that numbered in the hundreds of thousands per day. Over 2,000 people were connected via Lync; this number increased at key points in the campaign, such as during the debates and the Democratic National Convention, and Lync was able to quickly and easily scale to meet demand.

The ability to work from anywhere also created benefits that expanded beyond the campaign staff and volunteers. Because they were able to be fully mobile on Lync and move from the office to the field without needing to transfer their phone number every time, the IT staff was able to free up time and support other mission-critical activities to keep the campaign running smoothly.

“It was really useful to see how Lync could adapt to the way our multilocation operation works,” Chopra said. “We didn’t start with Lync in every office, but we deployed it in our Chicago headquarters, and those employees were able to seamlessly transition to the field while retaining their infrastructure. This ensured their focus remained on reaching out directly to voters and not on technology limitations."

“On election day, volunteers wanted to keep answering phones, even when their relief had arrived. Instead of turning people away from headquarters, we were able to plug them in, light up a port and place them anywhere there was an empty desk,” Chopra said. “Our voter protection hotline was able to be increased at any time.”

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.