Microsoft Pathways

What has been announced regarding Prodiance?

Microsoft has acquired Prodiance, a leading provider of Enterprise Risk Management software. Financial terms won’t be disclosed. Prodiance will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft and will maintain offices in Pleasanton, CA.

What are the terms of the deal?

The terms of the deal will not be disclosed.

Will Prodiance management team, sales and development team come over to Microsoft as part of the acquisition?

We’re excited about the caliber of employees at Prodiance and are working closely with Prodiance’ s management team to bring a number of Prodiance employees to Microsoft.

What capabilities does Prodiance provide?

Prodiance provides Enterprise Risk Management solutions that help organizations implement Excel spreadsheet control and compliance, as well as automation of risk assessment. Prodiance solutions help organizations mitigate risk, improve compliance and drive process improvement.

Why has Microsoft acquired Prodiance?

Prodiance is a market leader in Enterprise Risk Management and has been a valued Microsoft partner for many years, with a strong R&D organization, mutual customers and a sales force that works closely with Microsoft.

How is the acquisition good for customers?

Microsoft is committed to delivering more value within Office and plans to integrate the technologies into future versions of Office. Customers will benefit from

• Increased efficiency through automated risk assessment
• Provisioning of policies enforcements, and continuous monitoring and control of end-user documents
• Increased security of critical business information

What was the value of Prodiance prior to the announcement?

Prodiance is a privately-held company and does not disclose this information.

How does the Prodiance technology fit with existing Office suite of products?

The Prodiance solution is currently built on top of Excel and SharePoint Server. This acquisition will enable even deeper integration of compliance-related solutions into future versions of Office and SharePoint.

How will Microsoft license the Prodiance products?

Pricing, licensing and availability will be announced at a later date.

Can customers buy Prodiance products today?

Existing Prodiance customers who are current on maintenance and support agreements as of the date of the acquisitions, June 6th, 2011, will be able to purchase additional seats. Please continue to contact Prodiance customer service with specific questions about your existing deployments.

For customers who are not currently Prodiance customers, pricing, licensing and availability of the Prodiance technology as part of future versions of Office will be communicated at a future date. We encourage prospective customers to wait for those announcements to understand the best ways to acquired and take advantage of these technologies.

I am an existing Prodiance customer. What does this mean to me with our current implementation of Prodiance technologies?

There isn’t any immediate impact to your current implementation of Prodiance technologies. You can continue using the solution, and you can acquire additional licenses if needed through Prodiance. Your current support and maintenance agreements will continue to be honored.

How will the Prodiance capabilities be integrated with the Office roadmap?

Product roadmap and integration plans will be disclosed at a future date.

Will Microsoft continue to make all of Prodiance products available?

The Prodiance product roadmap and any integration plans will be disclosed at a future date.

What happens to Prodiance’ customers support agreements?

Prodiance customers’ support experience for current products will remain the same during the transition to Microsoft, and existing support agreements will be honored through expiration. Upon expiration of these contracts, new Microsoft support offerings will be available to ensure ongoing support availability of Prodiance technologies. In case Microsoft support offerings are not ready at the time of expiration of the support contracts, existing Prodiance customers will continue to get support till Microsoft offerings are ready.

How will support for Prodiance customers be impacted?

Prodiance support practices and procedures will be migrated to standard Microsoft practices over time and customers will be notified in advance of those process changes.

Who does the Prodiance customer need to contact for customer service and support?

Prodiance support contacts and communications initially remain the same. Existing Prodiance customers should continue to use the Prodiance support site. Support practices and procedures will be migrated to standard Microsoft practices over time and customers will be notified in advance of those process changes.

Can existing Prodiance customer who is also a Microsoft Premier customer get support using their current Microsoft premier support contracts?

No. Support practices and procedures will be migrated to standard Microsoft practices over time. Once this is done Premier Customers can use their existing premier support contracts to get support if they choose to. Existing Prodiance customers who are also Microsoft customers will be given free support between the time their contract expires and migration is completed. Once migration to Microsoft is completed existing Prodiance customers have to purchase the support from Microsoft to continue to get support.