Ordina and Cognizant Enter into Strategic Alliance

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands and TEANECK, New Jersey, May 4 /PRNewswire/ --

-- Combined strengths to drive new growth opportunities in the Benelux market

Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH), a leading provider of global IT and business process outsourcing services and Ordina (EURNEXT NV: ORDI), a leading Dutch IT services provider today announced a strategic alliance focused on combining Cognizant's proven global delivery model with Ordina's strong track record in delivering consulting, ICT and outsourcing solutions to the Dutch and Belgian market. This alliance will allow both companies to drive new growth opportunities while offering the benefits of global sourcing to Benelux companies focused on driving business transformation, process improvements, innovation, cost reductions, and productivity enhancements.

Under the terms of this agreement, Cognizant will become Ordina's primary strategic partner in the Benelux for offshore solutions. The two companies will jointly offer global delivery solutions for Ordina's Top 40 customers in the financial services, public, industrial and telecommunications markets.

"We are excited about this alliance because deep local domain expertise and relationship management, coupled with global sourcing and global delivery, are becoming mainstream in the Benelux IT outsourcing market," says Ronald Kasteel, CEO of Ordina N.V. "By having access to Cognizant's offshore delivery capabilities, this partnership enables us to achieve faster growth and overcome the scarcity in high-quality ICT-capacity. This alliance will also allow us to deliver high-quality, highly reliable and cost effective solutions to support the mission-critical business processes of our Top 40 clients, driving significant economic and business benefits for these organizations."

"We chose to work with Ordina because of their recognized brand and strong local capabilities in the Dutch and Belgian market," says Santosh Thomas, Vice President of Continental Europe, Cognizant. "We believe that this alliance will enable us to drive superior results for Dutch clients, as together with Ordina we can bring our joint customers a world-class powerful combination of deep local knowledge and a market-leading global delivery platform."

        
    For more information please contact:
    Ordina N.V.: Mr. Ronald Kasteel, CEO, Telephone: +31(0)30-663-7006
    Netherlands: Hella van Leeuwen, Zeno Group, +31(0)20-30-10-989,
                 hella.vanleeuwen@zenogroup.com
                 Lauren Valbert, Cognizant, +31(0)6-127-10-828,
                 lauren.valbert@cognizant.com
    Continental Europe: David Cotterill, Cognizant, +44(0)791-953-63-46,
                        davidm.cotterill@cognizant.com
    
    UK: Dan Chappell, Brands2Life, +44(0)7808-572512,
        dan.chappell@brands2life.com
        Paul Hope, Cognizant, +44(0)207-321-4882, paul.hope@cognizant.com
    North America: Richard Jones, Waggener Edstrom, +1-203-353-7031,
                   richardj@waggeneredstrom.com
                   Kirsten Paragona, Cognizant, +1-201-673-8379,
                   kirsten.paragona@cognizant.com
    India/Asia: Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Cognizant, +91-98-400-39500,
                ramkumar@cognizant.com

About Ordina

With our more than 5,000-strong workforce, Ordina aims to improve the business processes of Dutch and Belgian enterprises by providing advisory services, developing supporting applications or taking on a wide range of processes, including ICT. Ordina N.V. was incorporated in 1973. Ordina N.V. shares are quoted on Amsterdam's Euronext Stock Exchange, where they are included in the Midkap.

About Cognizant

Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is a leading provider of global IT and business process outsourcing services. Focused on delivering strategic information technology solutions that address the complex business needs of its clients, Cognizant uses its own on-site/offshore outsourcing model to provide applications management, development, integration, and reengineering; infrastructure management; business process outsourcing; and numerous related services, such as enterprise consulting, technology architecture, program management, and change management.

Cognizant has over 43,000 employees who are committed to partnerships that sustain long-term, proven value for customers by delivering high-quality, cost-effective solutions through its development centers in India and on-site client teams. Cognizant maintains P-CMM, SW-CMM and CMMI Maturity Level 5 assessments from an independent third-party assessor and ranked among the top information technology companies in Business Week's Hot Growth Companies. Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100 Index and the S&P 500 Index. Find additional information about Cognizant at http://www.cognizant.com.

This press release includes statements which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions and the factors discussed in our most recent Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cognizant undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

    
    CONTACT: Malcolm Frank
             SVP, Marketing and Strategy
             +1-617-273-9282
             malcolm.frank@cognizant.com
             Investors/Financial Media:
             Scot Hoffman
             FD
             +1-212-850-5617
             scot.hoffman@fd.com

Web site: http://www.cognizant.com

Malcolm Frank, SVP, Marketing and Strategy of Cognizant, +1-617-273-9282, malcolm.frank@cognizant.com; or Investors, Scot Hoffman of FD, +1-212-850-5617, scot.hoffman@fd.com, for Cognizant