REDMOND, Wash. — March 27, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced four Microsoft Dynamics Customer Excellence Award winners and showcased eight unique customer approaches to using Microsoft Dynamics in the state and local government market. These customers join more than 500 state and local government organizations leveraging the power of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform to achieve cost savings, streamline operations and transform the delivery of citizen services.

“State and local government leaders are facing increasing pressure to cut costs while improving our nation’s most critical services across public safety, healthcare and entitlement programs,” said Amir Capriles, general manager, U.S. Public Sector Dynamics at Microsoft. “Our Customer Excellence Award winners are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to solve complex business challenges, grow with constituent demands and replace legacy IT environments. We applaud their vision and leadership in driving significant impact for their constituents.”

Faced with serious fiscal challenges and resource constraints, government, education and healthcare organizations are seeking alternatives to expensive legacy systems. Public sector leaders are increasingly turning to Microsoft Dynamics CRM because the solution empowers organizations to be more responsive to citizen needs at a fraction of the cost, and these four award winners — Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Commonwealth of Virginia, Cancer Treatment Centers of America Inc. and Illinois Department of Corrections — are leading the way through their innovative deployments.

State and Local Governments

• Innovative Service Delivery and Cost Savings: Commonwealth of Virginia. The commonwealth has modernized multiple agencies’ business functions with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Virginia decided to replace outdated, manual systems and processes by adopting a shared services environment, eliminating the need for customized agency solutions. The modernization has sped the processing of citizen services inquiries; eliminated outdated, unsupported software and hardware systems; and enabled staff to work on other, more strategic tasks. The agencies are now operating more efficiently, which benefits both the citizens of Virginia and other state agencies. Virginia continues its innovative and creative approach to improving customer service and is saving taxpayers’ dollars in the process. Commonwealth of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell summarized, “It makes the citizens happier; it makes our state employees happier because they can deliver better value and service to the customer. It’s just a win-win.”

• Managing a Citywide Convention: City of Charlotte, N.C. Faced with hosting a large influx of visitors during the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the city needed to replace its manual permitting processes with a new solution. The city adopted Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and tailored the permitting solution to meet the unique demands of hosting the convention. The deployment has enabled Charlotte to reduce the burden of maintenance on its IT resources, automate previously manual workflows and streamline the overall event application process.

• Driving Up Jobs and Revenue: State of Indiana Economic Development Corp. (IEDC). Indiana and its economic development corporation have undertaken massive transformations that make the state more economically viable and improve responsiveness, accountability and efficiency. Bucking downturn trends, the state has attracted $6.4 billion in new economic development and 27,620 jobs. To achieve these results, the state improved collaboration and data access and automated processes by partnering with Crowe Horwarth International to deliver the Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution, enabling economic development staff to spend more time strengthening existing business relationships and pursuing prospective companies. Chad Pittman, executive vice president at IEDC, explained, “With the business process transformation and Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation, IEDC doubled per-employee productivity and total deal flow while reducing the agency’s annual budget allocation from $60 million to $40 million.”

Justice and Public Safety Agencies

• Unified Offender Case Management: County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. The courts, jails, district attorneys, and probation and parole offices that make up the criminal justice system previously maintained disparate case management systems. This wide range of applications lacked common standards, which led to duplicative data entries and made reporting and analysis very complex. As a result, the association developed a unified case management solution built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Combined with a set of Nation Information Exchange Model-compliant data standards, the platform improved information sharing at all levels of government and increased efficiency and accuracy throughout the offender lifecycle.

• Advanced Information Sharing and Mobile Victim Notification: Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC). The department is integrating technology services to improve communication between criminal justice partners and to better serve victims. Built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Indiana Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification shares custody information about offenders with crime victims and citizens. The IDOC can now personalize notifications, giving them control over how and when they are notified and improving information that is provided to victims, law enforcement and other justice partners.

• Reforming the Criminal Justice System: Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC). Guided by the governor’s vision, Illinois is reforming the criminal justice system through a public-private partnership for the state’s first cloud-based deployment, built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Illinois DOC selected the solution for its Offender-360 project to manage its statewide criminal justice population and help protect citizen safety. Illinois DOC is undergoing a phased rollout, anticipating 5,500 users of Offender-360 by the summer of 2013. The solution centralizes all information and intelligence on offenders to help staff make more effective and informed decisions regarding placement, rehabilitation and release. “This cutting-edge technology will give Illinois one of the most advanced criminal justice information systems in the country,” said Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. “It will save Illinois’ taxpayers millions of dollars while increasing public safety throughout the state.”

Health and Human Services Agencies

• Reimagined Health and Streamlined Delivery of Care: Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH). Leveraging Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Louisiana DHH is modernizing case management for the Office of Adult and Aging Services, providing case workers and citizens with one solution for intake, assessment, electronic plan of care and ongoing case management. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will help Louisiana DHH consolidate more than 109 existing case management applications under a single platform, enabling a projected decrease in more than 40 percent of redundant tasks and programs. Louisiana DHH plans to use Dynamics CRM as part of its upcoming Medicaid eligibility modernization engagement with Deloitte Consulting to support Medicaid recipients across the state. “Innovation is occurring in all corners of our healthcare system where states have led the execution of nation’s health IT agenda,” said Bruce Greenstein, secretary, Louisiana DHH. “We must continue to push the entire healthcare community toward solutions that translate new technological capabilities into more efficient delivery of care and better health outcomes.”

• Rapid Hotline Response and Reduced Abuse: Florida Department of Children & Families Abuse Hotline. IBM leverages Microsoft Dynamics CRM to deliver a call-center solution for more efficient intake processes, online reporting and performance management functions to improve the experience for more than 200 hotline counselors and the quality of interaction with child protective investigators and law enforcement. As a result of using the platform, the hotline can more quickly respond to calls, help ensure greater data accuracy, and more effectively identify patterns of abuse and manage high-risk situations.

• Inter-County Standardization and Care Coordination: Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD). To transform a highly fragmented environment to a more seamless, coordinated system, the DODD chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM for its Imagine project. The new shared information system environment lets 18 region V counties, the Mideast Ohio Regional Council and its supporting council of government use shared administrative activities and standardized practices to deliver services to individuals with developmental disabilities.

• Timely and Responsive Benefits: The State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS). CareDirector, built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, will be used to manage the Aging and Disability Resource Centers across the state, including options and benefits counseling services, and to manage its Older Americans Act programs for nutrition, transportation and other services for seniors and people with disabilities. The system promises timely, responsive and transparent data for DHS’ operations.

• Greater Patient Care, Savings and Retention: Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). CTCA offers cancer patients an integrated care model that combines traditional medical care with therapies to help manage side effects, strengthen the immune system and improve quality of life. After implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the CTCA can now more effectively maintain records, have a single view of the patient, integrate with ancillary systems and processes, and respond to growth and patient needs. Microsoft Dynamics CRM has resulted in significant cost savings and improved retention for CTCA.

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. — March 27, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that 10 K–12 school districts and higher-education institutions have signed on to use Windows 8 for more than 540,000 students and faculty to prepare students for futures in college and careers. Microsoft’s expanding community of Windows 8 education adopters now includes Apollo Group, Atlanta Public Schools, Barry University, Fargo Public Schools, Fresno Unified School District, Jackson-Madison County School System, Pace University, San Antonio Independent School District, Thomas College and Tuckahoe Common School District.

“Microsoft recognizes that in order to be prepared for future success in today’s competitive global economy, students must have technology skills employers demand, plus relevant, 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, communication and collaborations abilities, problem-solving, and greater awareness of the global community,” said Margo Day, vice president of U.S. Education, Microsoft. “Windows 8 is helping schools modernize learning by supporting new education standards, online assessments and the move to digital learning by providing a powerful platform where content can be easily consumed and created, and a connection to the cloud where collaboration opportunities can be reimagined.”

In addition to improving learning experiences that are needed in the work place, Windows 8 provides students with a beautiful, modern way to consume content, and allows them the freedom to create, collaborate, produce and share across a range of devices, with flexibility for pen, mouse and keyboard inputs. It also saves schools time and money, reducing IT and ongoing maintenance costs and providing enterprise-ready security, reliability and management fundamentals.

Schools Benefiting From Windows 8

“We chose Windows 8 because we need much more than a consumption-only device for online assessments to help prepare students for success,” said Chuck Jones, chief of technology at Jackson-Madison County School System. “On another operating system, the IT and app management of 1,200 separate devices for teachers would have been too overwhelming.”

In addition to the support Windows provides students as they prepare for college and careers, educators are choosing Windows 8 for a range of needs:

• Apollo Group (across the U.S.). Windows 8 is currently being tested in Apollo’s Product Support and Validation Lab, and provided as a virtual desktop via Hyper-V to application developers and student support teams for testing student-facing applications. The adult education and online learning company supports 324,000 students and 25,500 employees worldwide and are building out a standard desktop image, including Office 2013, and making it available to developers and testers in anticipation of a larger rollout in the near future. The most common reason for testing Windows 8 will be the proliferation of touch-based devices and shift to a more mobile workforce, coupled with the increased demand for work-life combination devices.

• Atlanta Public Schools (Georgia). Atlanta Public Schools is among the largest metro area school districts, and its 48,000 students will have access to Windows 8 across 25,000 virtual desktops. Staff designed their own student digital portfolio learning application using SharePoint, which grants students seamless access to their desktop experience, Office 365 Education, and Office Web Apps from school or any offsite PC or device. “We want our students to use the same tools that professionals do on a daily basis,” said Dave Williamson, district chief information officer. “With this anytime, anywhere access to Windows 8 and Office 365 Education, we know that when they go to enter college or the job market they will be ahead of the curve with this knowledge of the latest technology available.”

• Barry University (Florida). The university plans to move its full inventory of 2,815 desktops and laptops to Windows 8 to complement its BYOD program and benefit its 8,700 students and over 1,200 full-time employees. Along with the use of Office 365 Education, there will be true integration and access to all campus resources, which will result in increased productivity and collaboration.

• Fargo Public Schools (North Dakota). More than 3,000 students will be receiving Dell Latitude 10 tablets as part of Fargo’s 1:1 computing initiative designed to meet the learning needs of students in the 21st century both inside and outside the classroom. The district was looking for a lightweight, touch screen tablet with great battery life that students could use for reading, researching, content creation and sharing their work. For IT director Bill Westrick, “Windows 8 provides the ‘no compromises’ experience everyone has been looking for. It doesn’t force us to choose between a device that you can only read from and that doesn’t connect to a keyboard, or a device geared toward creating documents, presentations and other projects. It’s the best of both worlds: Teachers and students will be able to leverage existing curriculum and resources already used in the classroom.”

• Fresno Unified School District (California). To prepare all students to be successful in college and career, the fourth largest school district in California will be standardizing on Windows 8 as its desktop operating system for 10,000 teachers/staff and more than 73,000 students. The Windows 8 environment will prepare the district to align with curriculum and assessment standards supporting the Common Core initiative. In addition, the combination of Windows 8 tablet devices as part of its Office 365 Education initiative and its move toward 1:1 will enable anytime, anywhere learning experiences and real-time collaboration teaching students critical 21st century skills.

• Jackson-Madison County School System (Tennessee). Supporting 13,000 students and 2,000 staff members, Jackson-Madison County School System will leverage Windows Multipoint Server 2012 to deploy Windows 8 so that one single desktop can serve up to four students, maximizing cost savings. The district will also start to implement its 1:1 computing initiative this fall.

• Pace University (New York). Windows 8 has been installed across the campus labs, and further testing and pilot projects are under way at Pace where it is building out classroom technology at a very rapid pace to provide the most state-of-the-art learning experiences for students. It will deploy Windows 8 across 10,000 desktops and devices.

• San Antonio Independent School District (Texas). Deploying Windows 8, it will provide 22,000 students with access to Windows 8 tablets in its 33 libraries to encourage reading engagement among students and increase the availability of curriculum resources.

• Thomas College (Maine). Students expect the latest technology that will best enable them to be productive and mobile, and they can now download Windows 8 and Office 2013 software for free thanks to the school’s Microsoft Campus Agreement. Furthermore, the school has rolled out Windows 8 to all desktops and laptops campuswide. The IT department is impressed with the startup speed of Windows 8, performance, hardware variety and touch interface.

• Tuckahoe Common School District (New York). Supporting grades K–8, TCSD has adopted the Surface Pro, Windows 8 and Office 365 Education to help comply with the New York State Education Department’s requirement, in association with PARCC for digital testing. Microsoft partnered with the district to address how it could meet these educational standards with the Microsoft suite, and technology education teacher David Dileo stated: “We looked at how we could meet the state requirements, increase digital literacy, decrease the digital divide, and prepare our students to compete in a digital world.”

“We are moving to Windows 8 to give our students the opportunity to work on real-world projects with technology they will eventually see in the workplace, experiences they won’t get on other specialty devices,” said Chief Information Officer Yvette Brown of Barry University. “I think Windows 8 will be easier for those who are not as tech-savvy because of the intuitive user interface with touch capabilities. I love the fact that I can actually get real work done on my Windows 8 tablet.”

See Windows 8 in Action for Yourself

To help school leaders and educators better understand how technology can be used in the classroom, Microsoft is conducting 700 Windows in the Classroom seminars across the country before the end of the school year. Those wanting to sign up for a session and to learn more about how technology can be incorporated into existing curriculum and how 1:1 device programs can help expand learning outside the traditional classroom walls should visit http://mie.ncce.org/wic. Schools can also register for the Partners in Learning Network (http://www.pil-network.com) to access a global network of educators sharing best practices, free software tools and tutorials, and lesson plans. Specific Windows 8 training materials can be found at http://www.pil-network.com/pd/course/wic.

About Microsoft in Education

At Microsoft, we are deeply committed to working with governments, communities, schools and educators to use the power of information technology to deliver technology, services and programs that provide anytime, anywhere learning for all. For more information: http://www.microsoft.com/education.

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. — March 27, 2013 — At the annual Microsoft U.S. Public Sector CIO Summit today, Microsoft Corp. announced eight government and education organizations that have chosen to adopt the Microsoft Office 365 cloud productivity platform to reduce costs, improve collaboration and modernize their technology infrastructures. Microsoft’s rapidly expanding community of public sector cloud customers now includes the City of Kansas City, Mo.; the City of Seattle; the University of Miami; California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State); the University of Colorado Colorado Springs; the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority; Dupage County; and King County, Wash.

“Our mission is to provide the best possible services for Kansas City while maximizing taxpayer dollars,” said Mary J. Miller, chief information officer, Kansas City. “The move to Office 365 and cloud productivity will enable our staff to be more efficient while reducing both the city’s IT costs and its energy footprint.” Public sector organizations are increasingly choosing Microsoft Office 365 for cloud-based communications and collaboration to maximize information technology investments in the face of extreme budget challenges. These eight new customers represent the breadth of agencies and education institutions that now have access to the latest versions of familiar Office productivity solutions as they choose the cloud to help reduce IT management and data hosting costs. More than 1 million U.S. government workers have already made the move to Office 365 for their day-to-day productivity needs across a variety of federal, state and local organizations, including the State of California, the City and County of San Francisco, the City of Chicago, the State of Texas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The rapidly increasing public sector adoption rates for Microsoft Office 365 are directly tied to current budget realities and the fact that our customers need to be more productive at a lower cost,” said Curt Kolcun, vice president of U.S. Public Sector at Microsoft. “Organizations are achieving significant cost savings through the cloud delivery model while gaining access to the latest collaboration tools without sacrificing on security or privacy.”

New Microsoft Office 365 Customers

• City of Kansas City, Mo. With responsibility for delivering services to nearly half a million residents, the Kansas City government chose Office 365 to help increase operational efficiency, reduce IT management costs and shrink its energy footprint. Leveraging the latest Microsoft innovations in datacenter design, Kansas City is decreasing energy consumption while taking advantage of the productivity benefits of cloud-based collaboration, resulting in real impact for citizens.

• City of Seattle. Delivering citizen services to more than 600,000 residents requires a flexible, agile IT infrastructure, and the city of Seattle is adopting Office 365 to help boost internal efficiencies while reducing costs. The city’s workforce will be more productive on the go, with improved remote access to critical applications and files, all within a security-enhanced, reliable cloud environment.

• Dupage County, Ill. As the second most populous county in the state of Illinois, Dupage County was looking for innovative ways to improve service delivery to nearly 1 million residents while maximizing the ROI on its technology investments. The decision to move to the cloud with Microsoft Office 365 will provide personnel with access to the latest Microsoft productivity tools, while driving new collaboration opportunities and increasing efficiency across county government operations.

• King County, Wash. King County, Wash., is moving to Office 365 cloud-based communications and collaboration as part of a broader strategy to leverage existing IT resources. Through an enterprise service delivery model, employees are taking advantage of expanded opportunities for cross-agency collaboration while gaining access to the latest videoconferencing, instant messaging and productivity solutions.

• San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. After reviewing a number of cloud-based email and collaboration solutions, including Google Apps, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority made the decision to adopt Office 365 for its security features, functionality and collaboration benefits. Staff members are already taking advantage of new instant messaging and videoconferencing capabilities through Microsoft Lync, and the move is expected to save the organization US$40,000 per year on reduced IT management costs, freeing up personnel to focus on delivering essential airport services to citizens.

• University of Miami. More than 40,000 students, faculty and staff will move to the cloud, so everyone on campus will have a common platform to communicate and collaborate more effectively. The Miller School of Medicine required a cloud solution that offered a business associate agreement as mandated by the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act because it handles sensitive health data, and Microsoft offered the capability to provide security and privacy safeguards to meet this federal law. Located in an annual hurricane zone, business continuity, fault tolerance and backups are top of mind and expensive, but by moving to Office 365 for education, the university will be able to reallocate resources, time and money to other strategic initiatives.

• University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). Students at UCCS were unhappy with the old email solution the university’s IT shop provided, and they wanted the type of functionality provided by Microsoft Exchange, such as shared calendaring, common contacts, an easy-to-use Web client and mobile device support. The IT department wanted to offer this, but because of budget cuts and other costly priorities, it could not justify moving the students to campus Exchange servers. Now, 29,000 student and alumni accounts are on Office 365 for education, and the university is in the process of phasing in Microsoft SharePoint, Office Web Apps and Lync, which are expected to be popular with students because of the rise of mobile device usage, online learning. and the desire to have access to files anywhere, anytime.

• Sacramento State. Exchange and Office are already the most-used software applications on campus, so moving to Office 365 Education was a “no brainer.” By moving some 50,000 accounts to the cloud, Sacramento State will be able to greatly reduce the cost of providing email and related communications services without compromising the quality of service. Faculty, staff and students will continue to get the best-of-breed Exchange features, plus SharePoint and Lync services, that will truly expand access to anytime and anyplace availability.

More information about how these and other Public Sector organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available for download and 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.

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Registration for PGCon 2013 is now open. Have a look at our list of speakers. Please be sure to book your accommodation right away. Some hotels will be sold out within a few weeks. We have an accommodation page which will help you find somewhere to stay.

REDMOND, Wash. — March 25, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the appointment of Judson Althoff to the role of president, North America Sales & Marketing, and corporate vice president. Althoff will manage a team of sales, marketing and services professionals across the United States and Canada, within a division that was a significant contributor to Microsoft’s US$73 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2013.

A business technology leader with more than 18 years of experience, Althoff previously served as senior vice president of worldwide alliances and channels and embedded sales at Oracle Corp., where he led worldwide indirect and embedded sales. During his 14 years at Oracle, Althoff held a number of senior positions, including group vice president for worldwide alliances, and vice president of global platform and distribution sales. Before Oracle, he held several sales leadership roles at EMC Corp.

“Judson has a track record of successfully developing, growing and leading global sales organizations with a culture of execution excellence,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “Judson’s proven leadership will enable us to continue to excel in delivering the best devices and services experience to our customers including businesses and consumers.”

Althoff will assume his new role at Microsoft on March 29, 2013, reporting to Turner.

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.