Redmond, Wash., and London, UK, Aug. 5, 2008

Microsoft Corp. and BearingPoint, Inc. (NYSE: BE), one of the world's largest management and technology consulting firms, today announced the BearingPoint Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance (EGRC) solution.

With Microsoft, BearingPoint has created a risk-based compliance solution based on Microsoft technology that builds on the companies’ long-standing alliance and helps organisations identify areas of risk, assess and remediate control deficiencies, and strengthen compliance without compromising profitability.

Built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, this technology solution includes the necessary software and management tools to help organisations effectively manage risk and compliance through the use of alerts and analytics.

For example, an organisation can set alerts so that if key risk indicators or compliance metrics are exceeded, email notifications are triggered and workflow steps are initiated, forcing employee actions to address the activity. These reactions are documented and audit trails maintained to assist companies in ensuring that appropriate and timely actions are taking place.

The collaboration combines Microsoft’s “people-ready” software that strengthens the capabilities and connections of users with BearingPoint’s leadership in business strategy, management consulting and systems integration.

“In so many organisations, compliance and risk management are treated as silos of responsibility, supported by costly, reactive point solutions,” said J.R. Reagan, vice president and managing director, Global Risk, Compliance and Security, BearingPoint. “By merging our deep experience in risk and compliance management with Microsoft’s technology, we are delivering a powerful, compelling and cost-effective solution for clients worldwide.”

“Initially developed for the public sector, the risk-based compliance solution now addresses the business-critical risk and compliance management needs of our enterprise clients across a number of industries,” said Brian Scott, Vice President of Worldwide Industries, Microsoft. “The global competitive environment continues to become more challenging, and the competitive pressure is substantially increased by the need to meet more demanding regulatory requirements. To help meet global competitive and regulatory challenges, we have teamed up with BearingPoint to develop a solution that provides the seamless communications, connections and collaboration needed to break down today’s barriers between operations and compliance.”

The new risk-based compliance solution will address the unique needs of clients across all industries as they work to keep pace with today’s increasingly complex regulations. Initially, the companies will aggressively market to pharmaceutical, energy, and financial services companies as well as government agencies.

Pharmaceutical organisations which store information in a wide range of isolated systems will be better able to retrieve and synthesize data and collaborate to support regulatory compliance.

Energy companies, including power and utilities, which need to comply with unprecedented levels of regulatory stridency in an increasingly fast-moving business environment will be able to take a more proactive approach in addressing issues such as market operations, code of conduct, security, reliability and environmental health and safety.

Clients within the financial services industry, who have been under pressure to meet increasingly rigid compliance requirements ranging from stronger anti-money laundering regulations worldwide, Sarbanes-Oxley, J-SOX and Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFD), will benefit from the solution’s fully integrated collaboration, workflow and document management tools.

The BearingPoint EGRC solution builds on BearingPoint’s EMEA ECM and Compliance solutions established at more than a dozen clients in six European countries and the Integrated Financial Control and Compliance solution (iFiCCS) designed for and used by US government clients. For almost 10 years, BearingPoint and Microsoft have maintained an alliance to develop and deliver integrated solutions to mutual clients. These solutions deliver a lower total cost of ownership and generate greater productivity for clients—from process improvement to managing suppliers; to developing new methods of collaboration and communication.