Please direct your media and public relations inquiries to: mediarelations@cdw.com 800-800-4CDW CDW-G Extends Small Business Consortium To Serve State, Local And Education Customers Success Serving Federal Customers Prompts Expansion Vernon Hills, Ill. - November 12, 2003 - CDW Government, Inc. (CDW-G), the government and education subsidiary of CDW Corporation [Nasdaq: CDWC], today announced it is extending its Small Business Consortium to serve state, local government and education customers in California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas and the State of Washington. The program has been in operation for federal government customers since July. The consortium enables small and disadvantaged businesses to tap into CDW-G's world-class e-commerce, service and distribution capabilities to help them more effectively compete for government information technology (I.T.) contracts. It also enables government agencies to receive specialized I.T. services from small businesses while also getting the extras they expect from a Fortune 500 company. "We've always been intimately involved in building customized solutions for our customers," said Jim Shanks, president of CDW-G. "The Small Business Consortium is a creative approach to help customers receive technologies that address their specific needs. We think it is a win-win-win proposition." This week, the company issued a request-for-proposal (RFP) soliciting woman, minority or veteran-owned companies, certified small and disadvantaged firms and companies located in a federal HUBZone in to participate. The HUBZone program provides federal contracting assistance to businesses located in economically distressed geographic areas. The RFP can be found on CDW-G's Web site at CDWG.com/smallbizrfp. The deadline for submitting proposals is December 1, 2003 with the goal of having partnerships in place by the beginning of 2004. CDW-G plans on expanding its Small Business Consortium further to other states but wants to build the program gradually. "We're managing the program's growth closely to make sure we are providing superior performance for the customer," said Kevin Adams, CDW-G vice president programs management. "We also want the program to be profitable for us and for our partners." "This effort demonstrates not only the importance of government procurement in the post-9/11 economy," said Ken Presti, research director of IDC's Network Channels and Alliances service. "It also provides a solid example of how historically volume-focused companies, such as CDW, can bring new and higher value to the information technology sales equation." How It Works Consortium members sign an annual CDW-G partnership contract that is not limited to any specific project. As the small businesses pursue an opportunity, they work directly with the customer and bring in CDW-G when they need products to support their service engagements or when they want to offer their customers CDW-G's many value-adding offerings such as custom PC configuration and asset-tagging services and the CDW-G Software License Tracker, a web-based software license management tool. CDW-G will also refer business to member companies. About CDW-G A wholly-owned subsidiary of CDW Corporation (NASDAQ: CDWC), CDW-G addresses the unique needs of the government and education markets with brand-name technology products and services. CDW-G is a leading source of technology products and services from top name brands such as APC, Apple, Cisco, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Symantec, Toshiba and ViewSonic. For more information about CDW-G's product offerings, procurement options, service and solutions, call 1.800.863.4239 or visit the CDW-G Web site at CDWG.com.