(Morris Plains, NJ) February 23, 2004 – QTS announced today that QTS and Microsoft have concluded the "pilot" stage of their joint Systems Strategy Check-Up initiative and are moving into a broader second phase of the campaign based on initial successes.  The "SSCU" is a half-day consultative engagement where QTS leads an interactive discussion about how the customer is using Microsoft (and other) technologies, and how this relates to best practices, across four major areas - Server Platform, Server and Desktop Management, Information Security, and Desktop Software and User Productivity.  The engagement is provided at no cost to Microsoft Medium Business customers. 

"This all started with Microsoft coming to us to help develop this offering, and customize it for the Medium Business market space," noted QTS President Neil Rosenberg.  "Microsoft's main goal in this process has been to improve the customer experience - to help customers understand how they can most efficiently and securely use Microsoft technologies they have, and to help customers see opportunities to improve their businesses' profitability, agility and competitive position leveraging Microsoft technologies.  So far, that's exactly what we've been delivering on."

"The Systems Strategy Check-Up is a crucial element of Microsoft's business strategy for this year," noted Alejandra Calatayud, General Manager of the NY/NJ Small & Mid-Market Solutions and Partners Division at Microsoft.  "The campaign started last fall as a pilot project with QTS, and has now been rolled out across the entire eastern United States, leveraging QTS as well as our network of other go-to partners."

As of mid-February, QTS has performed ten SSCUs, noted Rosenberg, and has received strong praise from all participating Microsoft customers.

One of the first Microsoft customers QTS performed an SSCU for was Burns and Roe, a full-service engineering, construction, operations and maintenance firm headquartered in Oradell, New Jersey.  According to Wayne Uffleman, the Information Technology Director, "The Systems Strategy Check-Up provided by QTS and Microsoft provided us with a number of benefits.  By facilitating an open discussion around our goals, we were able to identify "low hanging fruit" that helped us refocus our priorities and complete some key initiatives.  It also gave our upper management a quick assessment of our current IT infrastructure, and reinforced the need for funding some 2004 IT initiatives."

Another early SSCU participant was one of New Jersey's leading accounting and professional service firms, J.H. Cohn in Roseland, New Jersey.  According to Freddy Delacruz, Network Manager for J.H. Cohn, "QTS gave us an excellent summation of our environment, and cited areas where we can strategically and tactically improve the network, while reinforcing the many good things we had already done.  They analyzed everything - servers, systems management, security and desktop software and staff productivity tools.  All in all, this was a great exercise that I'd highly recommend for Microsoft shops to participate in."

"QTS was instrumental in shaping and driving the Systems Strategy Check-Up offering," noted Calatayud.  "QTS worked closely with the NY/NJ Microsoft team to take our goals and create a methodology and process tailored to the Medium Business space.  QTS conducted the initial engagements, refined the process based on their approach, and then helped us scale the process out to other Microsoft partners across the eastern United States.  They've been our key partner in making this process a success for our customers."

QTS and Microsoft continue to offer the SSCU engagement to Microsoft Medium Business customers, at no charge.  For more information, contact your QTS Account Manager.

About QTS:

Quality Technology Solutions is a leading network integrator offering network infrastructure, network management, security and disaster recovery services to achieve higher reliability and availability for corporate networks.  Founded in 1992, the company serves New Jersey and New York businesses with solutions based on Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec, Check Point, Novell, Citrix, and HP technologies.  Clients have ranged from small firms to Fortune 500 companies in many industries.  QTS is located at 201 Littleton Road, Morris Plains, NJ  07950, and can be reached at 973-984-7600.  Additional information on QTS can be found online at http://www.QTSnet.com.

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Media Contacts:

Christine Bongard
Quality Technology Solutions, Inc.
Phone: (973)984-7600 ext. 222
Fax: (973)984-7650
email: cbongard@QTSnet.com