Baan Early to Market With Microsoft Windows 2000 Ready Enterprise Solution / Baan and Microsoft Share Vision for the E- Commerce-Enabled Enterprise

Vienna, Austria (PROTEXT) - At BaanWorld 99 today, MicrosoftCorp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced that BaanERP 5.0c is one of thefirst enterprise-class applications to be directory- enabled onthe Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 2000 operating system. This newversion of BaanERP fully utilizes the capabilities of Windows2000. It provides customers of Baan Co. N.V. with a strongfoundation on which to Internet-enable traditional businesses andenable transaction processing for e-commerce. Microsoft and Baanhave also reaffirmed their continued collaboration in thedevelopment of e-enabled enterprise solutions. The integrated services within Windows 2000 enable Baan tofurther deliver on its vision of providing end-to-end solutionsfor all aspects of the e- enabled enterprise from customer andsupply chain management to e-commerce and enterprise resourceplanning (ERP). At BaanWorld 99, Baan demonstrated the broadestdeliverable set of integrated e-enabled enterprise applicationsin the industry to support seamless e-fulfillment. By choosingBaan applications on the Windows 2000 operating system, customerscan take advantage of the integration provided by this suite toreduce the total cost of ownership for enterprise solutions. The benefits to Baan customers using Windows 2000 include thefollowing: -- Setup and installation. Baan plans to adopt the MicrosoftInstaller (MSI) client technology, which will enable customers tolower the costs associated with enterprise-scale implementationbecause of reduced client system administration and the use of anauto-repair feature. -- Security. The security features of Windows 2000 allowenterprise network users to easily access all authorized networkresources on the basis of a single authentication that isperformed when they initially access the network. By using theseservices, Baan applications improve the productivity of networkusers, reduce the cost of network operations and improve networksecurity. -- Management. Baan utilizes the Microsoft Management Console(MMC) by providing a snap-in that enables an integrated andsimplified management infrastructure for Baan environments frominside the MMC. This allows system administrators to carry outstandard system-level administration through a far simpler userinterface, while reducing associated time and costs. -- Service publication and client configuration. With Windows2000, Baan environments will be defined in the ActiveDirectory(TM) services, greatly simplifying client configurationand lowering customer configuration costs. This is accomplishedthrough the centralized administration of application services aswell as the use of Add and Remove application services withoutany effect on clients. "The Baan technology focus has always been to deliverincreasing flexibility to our customers so they realize fastertime-to-value within their organizations," said Laurens van derTang, executive vice president of Research and Development atBaan. "Developing on Windows 2000 makes this possible. Baanapplications on the Microsoft platform give customers the abilityto be flexible and react quickly to business changes. With ourpartnership, customers have an integrated enterprise solutionthat can be developed and deployed with ease within intranets andacross the Internet." "By exploiting the capabilities of the Windows 2000 platform,Baan's customers can make fewer trips to the desktop, simplifyserver management and strengthen security -- even in a dynamic,Internet-enabled environment," said Deborah Willingham, vicepresident of Microsoft's Business and Enterprise Division."Microsoft is excited that Baan recognizes the value ofdeveloping for the Windows 2000 platform, to quickly bringvaluable new enterprise solutions to our joint customers." Continued Relationship Between Microsoft and Baan The relationship between Microsoft and Baan has enabled thecompanies to provide value to customers through the following: -- Technology foundation. Microsoft and Baan have continued tobuild a strong technology alliance on key elements of thetechnology foundation, such as Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 7.0 andWindows 2000, ensuring scalability and rapid deployment. -- E-enterprise. Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition 3.0provides the foundation for the Baan E-Enterprise suite of Webapplications, providing a single, scalable framework for e-commerce. -- Applications. Baan continues to utilize Microsoftdevelopment platforms to deliver scalable and flexibleapplications in the areas of customer relationship management,enterprise resource planning, supply chain management andbusiness intelligence. About Windows 2000 Windows 2000 will enable the next generation of PC computingby providing customers with an easy way to Internet-enable theirbusiness using the integrated Web application services, increasedscalability and industry- standard security. Windows 2000 willprovide a more reliable platform designed for increased systemuptime and a more manageable operating system to lower desktopmanagement costs, and will offer more centralized management forservers. In addition, Windows 2000 will enable knowledge workersto take advantage of new devices. Microsoft plans to have general retail, channel and OEMavailability of Windows 2000 on Feb. 17, 2000. About Baan Founded in 1978, Baan Co. (Nasdaq: BAANF; ASE: BAAN) is aglobal provider of enterprise business solutions. Baan Co. offersa comprehensive portfolio of integrated services and best-in-class, component-based applications that span an organization'sentire value chain including e-business and Web commerce,customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning,supply chain management and corporate knowledge management.Deployed at more than 13,000 customer sites worldwide, Baan Co.solutions enable organizations to drive strategic businessgrowth, improve business processes, reduce operating complexityand increase corporate flexibility. Baan Co. has dualheadquarters in Barneveld, the Netherlands and Herndon, Va., andcan be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.baan.com/. About Microsoft Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in softwarefor personal and business computing. The company offers a widerange of products and services designed to empower people throughgreat software -- any time, any place and on any device. Statements in this press release using the words "believes,""expects," "anticipates" and the like are forward-lookingstatements within the meaning of the Securities Exchange Act of1934, as amended, and as such are subject to a number of risksand uncertainties that could significantly affect outcomes.Actual outcomes, therefore, may differ materially from theexpectations, estimates or assumptions expressed in or implied byany such statements. Typical risks and uncertainties may bereviewed in the Baan Co.'s public filings on file with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission (including its most recentForm 20-F and 6-K). NOTE: Microsoft, Windows and Active Directory are eitherregistered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in theUnited States and/or other countries. Baan is a registered trademark of Baan Co., and any trade,product or service name referenced in this release using the nameBaan is a trademark and/or property of Baan Co. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks oftheir respective owners. ots Original Text Service: MicrosoftCorp. Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: AndrewHoerner of Baan, (USA) 408-654-3464 or ahoerner@baan.com; DawnMyrah of Waggener Edstrom, (USA) 503-412-3659 ordawnm@wagged.com, for Microsoft; or Rapid Response Team, WaggenerEdstrom, (USA) 503-443-7000 or rrt@wagged.com, for Microsoft Website: http://www.baan.com Web site: http://www.microsoft.com

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