Microsoft Announces Vendor Program Excellence Award Winners

Vendor of the Year : Flextronics International Ltd. demonstrated excellence in two or more categories.

Flextronics is the primary contract manufacturer of the Xbox® console and also manufactures PC hardware devices for Microsoft. Through its own efforts, Flextronics identified component cost reductions in excess of its contractual obligations, which will save Microsoft more than $12 million in fiscal year 2004.

Diversity : Compass Group and Thompson Hospitality significantly increased its annual spending with a business owned by a minority, woman or disabled veteran.

Compass Group and Thompson Hospitality provide joint management of on-site hospitality services for cafes, conferencing and catered events, and delivery of vending supplies and free beverages. They operate all Microsoft U.S. campus dining facilities and manage most of Microsoft's food operations in Europe. To meet Microsoft's fiscal year 2003 objective to increase spending among minority- and woman-owned businesses, Compass Group has strategically partnered with Thompson Hospitality LLC, a leading minority-owned food service provider.

Quality : Arvato Services Inc. significantly increased quality by introducing an innovative quality improvement initiative.

Arvato supports 10 Microsoft Partner, Certification and Academic programs across North America and Latin America. Arvato successfully managed substantial growth in fiscal year 2003 while consistently maintaining high customer satisfaction ratings across all the programs it supports.

Service : Excell Data Corp. significantly increased flexibility and responsiveness by clearly demonstrating that customer satisfaction is its No. 1 priority.

Excell Data provides agency temporary staffing services; project-based technical services, such as application development and Web development; and hardware, software and networking support for Microsoft and industry events. In the past two years, Excell has successfully scaled its business to quickly respond to Microsoft's increased needs for technical and testing professionals while exceeding its targets for performance.

Technology : Toshiba America Information Systems successfully implemented technology that enables superior performance in supply chain operations.

Toshiba America Information Systems provides Tablet and Notebook PCs and mobility solutions to Microsoft employees worldwide. Toshiba has demonstrated its dedication to technology innovation by making a big financial bet to design, manufacture and deliver Tablet PCs before the Microsoft product launch. Toshiba exceeded internal product requirements, delivering near-multimedia-level notebook performance, and earned eight Editors' Choice Awards from PC Magazine as well as the Best of COMDEX award last fall.

Value : Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Optical Media Solutions Division) significantly decreased costs and/or increased efficiencies by introducing an innovative cost-savings initiative.

Samsung Electronics provides Microsoft with DVDs and memory for the Xbox product. Samsung has demonstrated a continued focus on product cost reduction, participating in and initiating engineering and manufacturing efforts that have led to significant year-over-year cost reductions of the DVDs for Xbox.

"This is the second year we have given these awards, and we are tremendously excited to be honoring the strong results of the winners and the increased value all of us are seeing in the relationship," said Tim McBride, director of vendor programs at Microsoft. "Much of our success is predicated on the great work our vendors do for us. It is a great honor to single out the very best each year for recognition with these awards."