LONDON, UK - April 5, 2011- Hitachi Consulting, a leading provider of IT consulting and management consulting solutions and services, today announced its client Magma Design Automation won the 2011 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Overall Customer Excellence Award. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Hitachi Consulting helped Magma deploy its global award-winning CRM system. Magma will be honored by Microsoft executives during the annual Convergence 2011 conference on April 10-13 in Atlanta.

Challenged with a legacy CRM system that did not offer the functionality, flexibility, reporting and multi-language capabilities it needed to support global growth and operational goals, Magma replaced the failing system with a 600-user, multi-national Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 solution.

The new system gave Magma a 360-degree view of its customer data and provided comprehensive reporting and multi-language capabilities right out of the box. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, Magma was able to increase efficiency, respond faster to market demands, and grow its international operations, while reducing overall costs significantly.

“We are honored to receive the Overall Customer Excellence award,” said Vickie Flores, vice president, Information Services at Magma. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 provides the true customer insight we need to make sound business decisions and improve productivity. We know that we have made the right choice with this solution. We are also very grateful for all of the support provided by Hitachi Consulting in the migration and roll-out of the solution.”

“Magma earned this award by executing a great global deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. They are a very well-managed business that understands large projects and how to create successful adoption and we are very proud they received this recognition from Microsoft,” said Mike Gillis, senior vice president of Hitachi Consulting’s Microsoft Global Alliance. “Magma helped develop the product as part of the CRM beta programme and have evangelised it as part of the global launch. This award is a testament to their commitment and dedication to Microsoft CRM. We are happy to have helped them achieve this success.”

Magma and Hitachi Consulting’s selection as the 2011 Overall Customer Excellence for CRM award winner makes this the third year in a row a Hitachi Consulting client has received Microsoft’s top customer achievement honours. In 2010, Panduit won the Overall CRM Customer Excellence award. And in 2009, The Linc Group was named Overall Dynamics Customer Excellence award winner – for ERP and CRM combined.

Established in 1997, the Customer Excellence Awards are presented each year at the Convergence user conference in the United States. The 2011 Customer Excellence Awards celebrate Microsoft Dynamics customers that have achieved notable accomplishments using Microsoft products. Receiving the Overall Excellence award is particularly noteworthy as the winning customer is chosen from all nominations in all 19 categories.

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship, and supply chain management solutions that help businesses work more effectively.

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About Magma

Top semiconductor makers worldwide use Magma’s electronic design automation (EDA) software to produce chips for electronic applications including tablet computing devices, mobile devices such as smartphones, electronic games, digital video, networking, military/aerospace and memory. Magma products provide the "Fastest Path to Silicon”™ and include software for digital design, analog implementation, mixed-signal design, physical verification, circuit simulation, characterization and yield management. The company maintains headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and offices throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Magma’s stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Follow Magma on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/MagmaEDAand on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Magma. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

About Hitachi Consulting Corporation

As Hitachi, Ltd.’s (NYSE: HIT) global consulting company, with operations in the United States, Europe and Asia, Hitachi Consulting is a recognized leader in delivering proven business and IT strategies and solutions to Global 2000 companies across many industries. With a balanced view of strategy, people, process and technology, we work with companies to understand their unique business needs, and to develop and implement practical business strategies and technology solutions. From business strategy development through application deployment, our consultants are committed to helping clients quickly realize measurable business value and achieve sustainable ROI. Hitachi Consulting’s client base includes 25 percent of the Global 100 as well as many leading mid-market companies. We offer a client-focused, collaborative approach and transfer knowledge throughout each engagement. For more information visit www.hitachiconsulting.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2009 (ended March 31, 2010) consolidated revenues totaled 8,968 billion yen ($96.4 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at http://www.hitachi.com

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For further information, please contact:

Vanessa Land

Devonshire Marketing

Tel: 0870 242 7469

Email: Vanessa[at]devonshiremarketing.com

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