HP and Microsoft Expand Alliance in Unified Communications and Collaboration

Kuala Lumpur, May 21 2009 – HP and Microsoft today announced a four-year strategic globalinitiative to deliver an end-to-end unified communications and collaboration solution.

As part of their Frontline Partnership, the two companies expect to invest up to an additional$180 million in product development, professional services, as well as joint sales and marketing,to help organizations lower costs and improve productivity.

The solution, which is planned to span software, hardware, networking and services, wouldenable customers to improve business output and reduce travel, telecom and IT operating costs.This would be accomplished by streamlining communications across messaging, video andvoice with connected applications and devices. HP and Microsoft also plan to provide theflexibility and control customers need to manage their communications infrastructureefficiently.

Demand for unified communications and collaboration technologies is growing rapidly.According to an independent report from Forrester Research, 84 percent of enterprises in NorthAmerica and Europe are currently evaluating, piloting or implementing unified communicationsand collaboration solutions, and the market is expected to grow at a rate of 35.9 percent through2015.(1)

“Customers can lower costs and rapidly enhance employee productivity with unifiedcommunications and collaboration from HP and Microsoft,” said Ann Livermore, executivevice president, Technology Solutions Group, HP. “We provide customers with solutions that arerich, intuitive and accessible from anywhere on nearly any device.”

HP and Microsoft share a vision for business productivity solutions built on open, softwarebasedplatforms that work with the applications and systems people know and use today.

“Together, we are offering the extensive breadth of capabilities of our respective technologies todeliver a truly unified communications and collaboration solution to help our customersimprove business productivity,” said Stephen Elop, president, Microsoft Business Division,Microsoft. “This means one click to communicate, one click to conference, one click tocollaborate.”

“Microsoft’s approach to unified communications and collaboration solutions, combined withHP’s global technology and services, will help us drive innovation and growth in our business,”said Tina Atkinson, program sponsor, New Ways of Working, Cathay Pacific Airways. “CathayPacific Airways followed a detailed tender process and chose Microsoft and HP because theybest met our requirements for a flexible and comprehensive approach to unifiedcommunications and collaboration, tailored to our needs.”

Product development and integration
· The two companies will form joint teams to collaborate on products and servicesdevelopment across Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server andMicrosoft Office Communications Server, as well as HP ProCurve networking products.
· HP will obtain Microsoft Unified Communications qualification for the HP dx9000TouchSmart Business PC and select smartphones.
· HP will obtain Microsoft Unified Communications qualification for new IP desk phones.
· HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software will provide additional support forMicrosoft Office Communications Server, including the ability to provide real-time quality ofservice metrics for the voice and video network over the IP infrastructure.
· The two companies will provide end point interoperability with HP Halo TelepresenceSolutions and Microsoft Office Communications Server-based unified conferencing, enablingremote participants at any Microsoft Office Communication Server-enabled PC to jointelepresence conferences.

Professional services
· Microsoft and HP will offer a full set of business productivity services ranging fromassessment, architecture planning and design to implementation, monitoring, managementand support for software, hardware, network, server, storage and infrastructure componentsin the shared portfolio.
· HP will dedicate a global team of service professionals to support the joint solutions, helpingcustomers achieve improved levels of network availability and response times.
· HP and Microsoft will also target communications service providers, offering them the sametechnologies and services to enable hosted unified communications and collaborationservices for small to medium-sized businesses.
· HP and Microsoft will provide services for customers who seek to run their technology onpremise,fully outsource, or who opt for a combination of both.
· Microsoft and HP will work together to address customers’ real-time collaboration needsusing HP Halo Managed Services and HP ProCurve products.

Marketing and sales
· Microsoft and HP will assign dedicated salespeople to their joint solutions and train severalthousand technical and delivery personnel.
· The companies will showcase their end-to-end solution and their respective communicationsand collaboration products in Microsoft Technology Centers and HP Customer BriefingCenters worldwide.
· HP will help organizations accelerate adoption of the end-to-end solution with flexiblefinancing and trade-in programs from HP Financial Services.

More information about the HP and Microsoft initiative is available atwww.hp.com/solutions/microsoft/ucc.
More information about Microsoft unifiedcommunications and collaboration technologies is available at www.microsoft.com/bpio.