Avanade Delivers Packaged Application to Help Media and Entertainment Companies Streamline Processes, Lower Costs and Increase Profitability

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire - April 21, 2009) - Avanade, a business technology services provider, has announced a new packaged application for media and entertainment companies to help streamline business operations, seize emerging market opportunities, and boost profitability. The Avanade Integrated Supply Chain Management for Media offering, built on top of Microsoft Dynamics AX™, is a unified business system that enables organizations to automate media supply chain management. The solution helps media organizations manage media production projects, jobs, services and resources from planning and production to delivery and billing.

Media companies are under increasing pressure to service emerging digital channels and modernize growing media operations. Homegrown and legacy applications at most media organizations cannot support today's digital demands for new services, distribution channels or business models without costly updates. Partnering with Accenture and Microsoft, Avanade worked with leading media companies to address the foremost challenges of today's digital media environments.

"As the industry braces for more change, it is abundantly clear that operating in silos is a huge struggle and will continue to prevent profitable growth," said Justin Calvo, Media & Entertainment Industry Director at Avanade. "The Avanade Integrated Supply Chain Management for Media offering allows companies to connect people, processes, systems and information across the entire supply chain. It automates many repetitive and manual processes; provides complete transparency across the supply chain to help companies make informed decisions; and, gives companies the confidence to unlock new opportunities to drive revenue."

The Avanade solution builds upon the company's experience delivering more than 400 Microsoft-based solutions to leading media production, post production and distribution companies across the globe. For example, Studio 100, a leading family entertainment company based in Belgium, uses the system to effectively manage production projects, complex rights and royalties needs, and even its core financials. "The Avanade offering proved more flexible than any other solutions out on the marketplace," said Koen Peeters, Chief Financial Officer at Studio 100. "The modular fashion in which Avanade deployed the solution enabled us to get the quickest time to value and ultimately, delivered under budget."

The Avanade Integrated Supply Chain Management for Media offering includes capabilities to:

--  Erase organizational barriers and increase media production speed,
    productivity and quality across multiple content types.
--  Leverage a unified business operations system to conduct ongoing
    project monitoring, and reduce the time and cost required to bring branded
    content to audiences.
--  Gain transparency into business operations to make strategic
    decisions.
--  Unlock the value of the knowledge residing in existing resources and
    connect employees with each other to leverage that value.
--  Create a foundation where customizations can be made internally in
    minutes, without the need to hire and rely on outside sources.
--  Maximize delivery capacity and distribute branded content in multiple
    formats with business operations systems that keep costs in check.
--  Simplify the IT environment and reduce IT infrastructure and
    management costs through economies of scale.
    

"Media companies have retooled content production processes and systems to create a digital end-to-end media supply chain. However, the underlying business operations and resource planning systems have not kept pace, preventing companies from fully harnessing emerging digital channels," said David Wolf, Sr. Executive and Digital Transformation lead for Accenture. "In today's transformative media environment, clients cannot afford to miss out on opportunities to drive efficiencies in the supply chain, enabling scale and significantly reducing costs."

Hal Howard, General Manager for Dynamics Product Development at Microsoft, added: "The Microsoft Dynamics platform allows companies to tap into an ecosystem of over 200 certified ISV solutions including IP rights and royalty management, broadcast program scheduling, advertiser sales management, and much more. Avanade's use of this platform gives media companies the opportunity to obtain industry-specific functionality in a modular way to meet business needs. The combination of Microsoft, Avanade and Accenture gives our industry customers a new confidence in the core business tools that run at the heart of their organizations."

Avanade will be demonstrating this solution during NAB Show 2009 from April 20-23, 2009. The demo will be featured as part of the Microsoft booth, #SL720. Accenture will also be exhibiting at the show in booth # SL7620. To view Avanade's customer stories, please visit www.MyMediaShowcase.com.

About Avanade

Avanade provides business technology services that connect insight, innovation and expertise in Microsoft technologies to help customers realize results. Avanade's services and solutions help improve performance, productivity and sales for organizations in all industries. The company provides unsurpassed Microsoft expertise through a global network of consultants, and applies the right mix of onshore, offshore and nearshore skills to help deliver results faster, at lower cost and with less risk. Avanade, which is majority owned by Accenture, was founded in 2000 by Accenture and Microsoft Corporation and serves customers in more than 20 countries worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals. Additional information can be found at www.avanade.com.

Avanade and the Avanade logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Avanade Inc. Other product, service, or company names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. ®2009 Avanade Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Contact Information: MEDIA CONTACTS: Avanade Corporate: Charlie Zaragoza (206) 239-5893 EDELMAN CONTACT: Jessica Kendall (206) 268-2231