SEATTLE - March 27, 2001 - During the opening keynote address at the fourth annual Government Leaders Conference, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will outline Microsoft's commitment to empowering governments and their citizenry through innovative technology solutions. More than 400 government representatives from over 80 countries are attending the conference to learn more about e-government technology solutions and hear real-world examples of how these solutions are changing the way government agencies interact with citizens, businesses and other governments. In his keynote address, Gates will describe two such solutions: the United Kingdom's Government Gateway project, an initiative designed to have 100 percent of government transactions online by 2005; and Accenture's eGovernment Accelerator, a solution designed to help governments deliver seamless services across agencies via the Internet. "Nothing will have a greater impact on the way governments interact with citizens and each other than their effective use of technology," Gates said. "Innovative solutions such as the U.K. Government Gateway project and Accenture's eGovernment Accelerator, both based on the Microsoft® .NET Enterprise Server platform, will enable governments to improve efficiency, cut costs and be more responsive to citizens' needs." During his keynote address, Gates will publicly announce one of the most significant e-government solutions ever implemented: the United Kingdom's Government Gateway project. The project, developed as part of the U.K. government's online initiative, is a solution based exclusively on the Microsoft platform. The Government Gateway is the U.K. government's central authentication portal for all interactions among businesses, citizens and the government. Various Microsoft technologies were utilized in this solution, including the Windows® 2000 operating system, Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 and BizTalk™. The gateway solution leverages the government's legacy IT systems and provides full integration to a broad array of disparate applications and platforms while creating the scalability to meet the growing demand of its users.