Hitachi, Ltd.
Microsoft Co., Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. Information & Telecommunication group (President & Chief
Executive Officer: Toshihiko Odaka, Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) and Microsoft
Co., Ltd. (President: Makoto Naruke, Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) today
announced a cooperative effort to jointly develop, market and promote open solutions for
corporate workflow management products. Using Microsoft's new Digital Dashboard
technology, Microsoft's core messaging and collaboration technologies will be integrated
with Hitachi's outstanding workflow technology to provide high-value-added solutions
that feature an integrated Web environment.
The two companies will jointly develop solutions based on Hitachi's Groupmax
Workflow for Exchange workflow middleware product. A project team will start up on
November 1, 1999, and both companies will jointly market and promote the products.
In addition, Hitachi will develop an enterprise application and service solution
package consisting of the workflow product, "Applications to the General Affairs
Division," "Travel Expense Reimbursements," and "Purchase Orders." The package will
be released starting January 2000 through SCBANK(1), a solutions distribution
organization that started up in August.
Under the collaborative agreement, the functionality of Hitachi's Groupmax
Workflow for Exchange will be expanded, and Microsoft's new Digital Dashboard
technology will be used to achieve a seamless integration between workflow operations
and individual/group data management, such as e-mail. In addition to joint development
of solutions products, Hitachi and Microsoft will work together to market and promote
the products through advertising, direct mail, and mutual Web site links, as well as
through jointly sponsored events and seminars and jointly developed sales tools. Hitachi
will strengthen its partnership with Microsoft and also provide solutions that work with
Microsoft's upcoming operating system Windows(R) 2000.
In recent years, companies have been installing groupware products, including e-
mail, document management systems, and workflow management systems, to use
information resources more effectively and improve collaboration, and thereby increase
office and management productivity. Through connections with ERP, SFA, SCM and
other existing enterprise systems, workflow systems have been attracting attention in
recent years as an effective means of sharing and linking information within a company
as well as between companies.
Through its Exchange Server, which features outstanding messaging and
collaboration capabilities, Microsoft has been providing the core of a system for
transmitting and sharing information throughout an enterprise, and now has the lead share
of this market.(2)
Digital Dashboard, a new technology based on the capabilities of Microsoft's
Office 2000 and BackOffice, features a portal function that brings together various types
of information for knowledge management. Using this functionality, "knowledge
workers" are able to integrate and show the information they need to do their work. By
further promoting the use of its Digital Dashboard technology, Microsoft will provide a
broader range of solutions.
Hitachi introduced its Groupmax Workflow product in 1995 as a comprehensive
solution for organizing a company's various processing operations into a workflow
system. More than 1,000 companies use the product, which is regarded as a leading
workflow management solution. Groupmax Workflow supports the specification
standards set by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), the international
standardization organization for workflow technology. Hitachi is the co-chair of the
WfMC and the Japan representative, and works together with member companies to help
the Object Management Group, a distributed object standards organization, set workflow
specification standards.
The joint effort between Hitachi and Microsoft to develop open solutions using
Microsoft's Digital Dashboard technology will allow users to easily build outstanding
workflow systems that meet industry standards.
Note:
(1) With the goal of providing users with the best solution, SCBANK provides for
strengthened development and sales partnerships among Hitachi group companies,
IHVs, ISVs, and independent channels, and for joint development, registration,
and sales of solutions.
(2) The number of Microsoft Exchange Server licenses sold in the first half of 1999
exceeded that for Lotus Notes by over 673,000. See Microsoft Co., Ltd. August 23,
1999 press release:
http://www.asia.microsoft.com/japan/presspass/releases/0823exc.htm.
For more information, press only:
Public Relations, Corporate Communications, Hitachi, Ltd. Tel: 03-3258-1111
PR Group, Corporate Marketing Division, Microsoft Co., Ltd. Tel: 03-4523-3210
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