The Service Design Center brings Microsoft's People Ready Business vision together with TietoEnator's world class digital service design expertise - supporting customers in developing next generation interaction channels that aim to meet and exceed high consumer and employee expectations.

Internet and mobile devices are driving a new 'service world', where consumer behaviour is constantly evolving. Customers and employees can access multiple digital channels that enable them to purchase goods and services and to collaborate in virtual teams across borders, anytime, anywhere. Yet many enterprises are facing challenges in keeping up with this new and fast moving digital environment.

The new Service Design Center - with operations in Amsterdam, Helsinki, Munich, Oslo, Stockholm and Moscow - unites the expertise of Microsoft and TietoEnator, helping companies to prepare for the new standard of user experience and service process creation, and to deliver engaging, efficient and cost effective multi-channel services. Based on Microsoft's Information Worker solutions, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft unified communications, the Service Design Center will enable enterprises to build and drive business productivity. Importantly, the Center will help enterprises to create, develop and maintain a rare commodity in the digital domain - customer intimacy. It also enables field readiness in Microsoft technologies, both on-site and through TietoEnator's global sourcing centers. The first implementation projects using the new end-user centric service design model have started together with TietoEnator customers in mass-market industries such as the telecoms, finance and energy sectors.

"The creation of the Service Design Center is a milestone in the alliance between TietoEnator and Microsoft, and demonstrates the strong commitment to helping enterprise organizations deploy and utilize the latest Microsoft technologies to drive productivity and agility in their operations," said Peter Boit, vice president of Enterprise Partners at Microsoft. "TietoEnator's strong industry expertise and Microsoft technology competencies have come together in the Service Design Center to help bring innovative technology solutions to enterprise organizations more quickly."

"The way new digital business concepts are designed is changing fundamentally. Instead of running a 3 to 24 month IT-planning cycle, most industries must be able to release new services every month, or sometimes every week. Technology development is no longer driving change, the fundamental change in consumer behaviour is. TietoEnator is strong in information-intensive sectors such as telecoms, banking, utilities and healthcare. In combining TietoEnator's and Microsoft's expertise, we will speed up the development of new, innovative service concepts for our enterprise customers", said Pekka Viljakainen, Executive Vice President, TietoEnator.