HP and Oracle, in collaboration with Intel Corp., have announced that their Application Modernisation Initiative is gaining momentum as customers increasingly migrate away from legacy systems to drive business growth with more reliable and efficient IT infrastructures.

Introduced last year at Oracle OpenWorld 2006, the Application Modernisation Initiative is a comprehensive solution that helps businesses modernise their legacy environments to increase business agility and performance, reduce operational costs and lower risks. The Application Modern-isation Initiative was most recently adopted by the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket), a government agency under the Ministry of Finance in Sweden. In leveraging the tools and resources of the Application Modernisation Initiative to modernise its IT environment, the organisation joins, among others, BBVA, a Madrid-based multinational financial services group, and Carrefour Italy, part of one of the world’s leading distribution companies and the world’s

second-largest retailer.

HP also is expanding its worldwide delivery capability, starting with the tripling of its delivery capacity at the HP Mainframe Modernisation Centre of Excellence in Madrid, to meet increased customer demand for the Application Modernisation Initiative

projects.

The company has also announced a customer demonstration showcase, which is being piloted for worldwide deployment from its Service-Oriented Architecture competency centre in Sophia Antipolis, France. The showcase is designed to highlight HP, Intel and Oracle’s expertise in application and legacy systems modernisation. Additional customer demonstration centres will be located in Tokyo, Singapore and Cupertino, Calif.

When the Swedish Tax Agency wanted to modernise its technology infrastructure to make its operational activities more effective, it worked with HP Services and the HP Mainframe Modernisation Centre of Excellence to design and implement an application modernisation solution.