Infosys and Microsoft Corporation, on Thursday, entered into a strategic global alliance for developing business solutions in areas of customer relationship management, e-commerce, financial services and insurance. The companies would also undertake joint marketing initiatives and account planning, two CEOs N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys and Bill Gates of Microsoft corporation of USA, announced in New Delhi. Infosys continues to build a strong solution development reputation in the US and other international markets and brings a huge pool of resources skilled on Microsoft technologies. Together, we can deliver world class e-business solutions to our existing and future customers, Gates told reporters. In the first year of alliance, two companies would be focusing mainly in the US and Indian markets for the development of services. Commenting on the alliance, Murthy said we believe that this relationship will expand our fortune 1000 client-base in the days to come. Microsoft India and Infosys would also work closely to bring Infosys` world class solutions development and delivery capabilities to large Indian enterprises as well as to establish Infosys` competency centre at Bangalore, which would showcase high-end solutions developed on Microsoft technologies. Bureau Report