REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 27, 2014 — Convergence 2014, Microsoft Corp.’s (Nasdaq “MSFT”) premier event for its business community, kicks off in Atlanta next week with an opening keynote by Kirill Tatarinov, executive vice president, Microsoft Business Solutions Division.

Tatarinov’s keynote will highlight how businesses can deliver amazing experiences to their customers through business solutions. A broad range of customers will be featured in his keynote presentation, including Delta Air Lines, Lotus F1 Team, New Belgium Brewing Co., City Harvest Inc., Weight Watchers International Inc. and Chobani Inc. The keynote will also include new product demonstrations and discussions of how businesses can be successful in today’s fast-paced business environment where people are more connected and better informed than ever.

What: Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2014 keynote

Who: Kirill Tatarinov , executive vice president , Microsoft Business Solutions Division

When: Tuesday, March 4, 2014, 9–10:30 a.m. EST

Where: Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) , Atlanta

Live Webcast

Information: The live webcast of the keynote address will begin at 9 a.m. EST. Viewers may access the webcast at http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/atlanta14.

Transcript

Information: A transcript will be available within 24 hours on the Convergence 2014 virtual pressroom.

Live broadcasts of general sessions of Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions will also be available for viewing. A complete list of sessions and schedules is available at http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/atlanta14.

More about Microsoft Dynamics customers Lotus F1 Team and Weight Watchers as prime examples of growing successful businesses that are transforming their organizations and benefiting from Microsoft’s business solutions can be found in a feature story titled “Customers win with continued Microsoft Dynamics collaboration.”

More information and news from Convergence 2014 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/dynamics. Those who want to follow and engage with the Microsoft Dynamics Twitter community can do so at @MSFTDynamics and @MSFTConvergence using #CONV14.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 27, 2014 — The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest school district in the U.S., has selected Microsoft Office 365 as its faculty and staff email solution through implementation provided by SADA Systems, a Microsoft National Systems Integrator with Gold Competency. LAUSD chose Office 365 over competitors’ offerings due to the reliability, flexibility and security features of the service, as well as the opportunity to reduce the amount of time the district’s IT team spends on maintaining its infrastructure.

“With Office 365, we are supported by an integrated communication and collaboration platform that helps us work more efficiently and deliver better outcomes for teachers, administrators and students,” said Ron Chandler, chief information officer, LAUSD. “It also aligns with our vision for the district to move away from relying solely on our datacenter; the cloud enables us to free up resources and devote them to other mission-critical activities.”

Office 365 delivers the power of cloud productivity to educational institutions, helping save time and money while helping increase faculty productivity through a rich set of privacy, security and protection capabilities. It also allows users to collaborate, interact and share documents online, communicate easily via videoconferencing and instant messaging, and access email from many types of devices in virtually any location.

“Microsoft’s unique focus on data security and privacy was key to our decision to partner with them on this deployment,” said Hovig Safoian, chief technology officer, SADA Systems. “We believe cloud technology can transform education, empowering faculty and students to achieve more. LAUSD is incredibly important to us because they are leading technical modernization within school districts by moving to the cloud.”

In addition to providing the trusted and familiar experience of Office, the district also realized Office 365 would offer added benefits should a disaster ever strike Los Angeles, which is prone to earthquakes, fires and other natural calamities. Through the new technology, the district could connect remotely with teachers and staff to keep them apprised of breaking news and other districtwide communications, all while ensuring robust security and privacy for potentially confidential and sensitive information.

“An innovative and forward-thinking district is one that supports the modernization of its schools for the benefit of its faculty, staff and ultimately its students,” said Margo Day, vice president of U.S. Education, Microsoft. “There is no doubt that the Los Angeles Unified School District is leading the way in advancing educational processes through cloud technology.”

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 2 5 , 2014 — Community Healthcare Network (CHN), a group of nonprofit community health centers providing medical, dental and social services in neighborhoods throughout New York, has selected Microsoft Office 365 and email in the cloud to keep its business and healthcare teams running smoothly and to help enable seamless communication in crisis situations.

“Prior to selecting Office 365, in emergency situations, our health teams were more at risk of losing communication with each other and not being able to help those most in need,” said Catherine Abate, CHN’s president and CEO. “With Office 365, if a weather emergency hits, we’re able to use the power of the cloud to help maintain email and server connectivity, keep our operations moving forward, and stay in contact with our staff members and other organizations so we can focus on helping patients.”

When Hurricane Sandy hit, CHN lost its on-premises email communications, which wreaked havoc on an organization that relies heavily on email to coordinate with health teams and manage healthcare operations. Once the storm was over and email was restored, CHN decided to look at moving the entire organization to the cloud permanently to help avoid similar adverse situations in the future. Office 365 not only provided virtually anytime, anywhere access to an increasingly mobile workforce, it also helped ensure HIPAA compliance and a commitment to maintaining the highest security and privacy standards. In addition, Office 365 has helped improve the efficiencies of CHN’s electronic medical records (EMRs).

“Even since the beginning of 2014, we’ve experienced some significant winter weather here in New York, but despite the weather, we’ve been able to keep everything up and running thanks to the cloud,” said Jason Pomaski, CHN’s assistant vice president of Technology. “Office 365 has really transformed how our organization is able to provide care and respond to emergencies by keeping us connected in a highly secure, user-friendly way.”

CHN provides confidential care to men, women and children, regardless of citizenship status or ability to pay. The nonprofit has a mobile workforce that serves four boroughs with 11 health centers, along with a mobile medical van, and it helps more than 75,000 people per year. CHN is also called upon by state and local governments as a responder to natural disasters and potential health emergencies, which makes reliable communications imperative.

Microsoft and CHN made the announcement as part of the annual HIMSS Conference, the nation’s largest health IT event of the year. From empowering easier collaboration among healthcare teams to securing virtually anytime, anywhere access to vital health information, Microsoft Office 365 capabilities are better equipping healthcare organizations to deliver care for patients.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom. For more information on Microsoft’s presence at HIMSS 2014, visit the Microsoft in Health newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

The PostgreSQL project has again been selected to take part in Summer of Code for 2014. Google will be funding several students to work with mentors from our project in order to hack PostgreSQL code for the summer.

Applications for students open March 10th. Our Summer Of Code page has all the information you need about applying this year.

If you are connected with a university, please make sure that students know about this opportunity. If you are a student, please apply!

BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 23, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. on Sunday announced nine new hardware partners for Windows Phone and direct access to tools that will broaden the portfolio of devices for consumers and introduce new price points to accelerate growth in key markets. In addition to existing partners — Nokia, Samsung, HTC and Huawei — Microsoft has announced it is now working with Foxconn, Gionee, Lava (Xolo), Lenovo, LG, Longcheer, JSR, Karbonn and ZTE to develop on the Windows Phone platform.

With this latest news, Microsoft is now working with seven of the top 10 smartphone manufacturers in the world in addition to leading brands in China, India and Taiwan, representing more than 56 percent of the addressable market globally (IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, 2013). Customers can expect to see an even broader array of devices, from iconic to lower-cost options, coming to market.

“We are pleased to add these new partners to our expanding Windows Phone ecosystem. They will be key contributors to continued growth across price points and geographies for Windows Phone,” said Nick Parker, corporate vice president of the OEM Division at Microsoft.

Windows Phone is the fastest-growing smartphone operating system, according to IDC, and posted the largest increase for 2013 (90.9 percent), more than doubling the growth of the overall market during the year.

Microsoft also unveiled expanded hardware support that provides more flexibility so Windows Phone partners can build devices to meet the unique needs of their region or customer segments. Microsoft is adding support for Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 200 and 400 processors by Qualcomm Technologies Inc. with options that support various major cellular technologies, including LTE (TDD/FDD), HSPA+, EVDO and TD-SCMA. Windows Phone will also support soft keys and dual SIM, critical requirements particularly in Asian markets. These changes allow for manufacturing partners to easily leverage existing design investments to diversify their portfolio to include Windows Phone devices, including larger screen phablets.

On Sunday, Microsoft launched the Windows Hardware Partner Portal, which is designed to speed up device commercialization while minimizing development costs. Speed and economies are especially important for manufacturers needing to compete and win in the dynamic high-volume smartphone segment. The Windows Hardware Partner Portal is now open to all smartphone device manufacturers to learn about and begin the process to develop on the Windows Phone platform. Windows Phone device manufacturers will also be able to leverage the great services Microsoft has to offer in that market, which could include Office Mobile, Skype, Xbox and Bing; a growing app catalog; and features like Live Tiles and People Hub, which make Windows Phone so uniquely personal.

To further help enable smartphone device manufacturers to quickly and easily broaden their portfolio to include Windows Phone devices, Microsoft and Qualcomm Technologies are collaborating to give OEMs and ODMs that are working with the various Qualcomm Reference Designs for Snapdragon 200 and 400 processors direct access to Microsoft tools, content and adaptation kits to build devices on the Windows Phone platform. With Microsoft and Qualcomm Technologies, through its Qualcomm Reference Design program, delivering the building blocks to help design and build Windows Phones, Microsoft hardware partners will be able to focus on differentiating their offering based on apps and services. Device manufacturers will now be able to choose from hundreds of ways to customize their Windows Phone devices while keeping the consistently high-quality experience that the Windows Phone platform provides.

“We are making it easier, faster and more affordable for partners to develop a Windows Phone,” Parker said.

The well-established Qualcomm Reference Design program offers Qualcomm Technologies’ leading technical innovation, differentiated hardware and software, easy customization options that save engineering costs, access to an ecosystem of hardware providers, and testing and acceptance readiness for regional and leading operator requirements.

The expanded Windows Phone ecosystem will also provide mobile operators and retail partners with additional opportunities to offer white-label Windows Phone devices under their own brands. Mobile operators will also have more options to build custom apps and services for their Windows Phone devices that increase customer satisfaction, retention rates and revenue streams.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

The information contained in this press release relates to a pre-release software product that may be substantially modified before its first commercial release. Accordingly, the information may not accurately describe or reflect the software product when first commercially released. The press release is provided for informational purposes only, and Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the press release or the information contained in it.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.