Digital Island Announces Bell & Howell Information and Learning as Customer, Reaching
New Markets With Required
Business Wire - August 23, 1999 08:26
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 1999--
Electronic Information Provider Cuts Complaint Rate by 80% Using Digital Island's
Intelligent Network, Increasing Customer Retention Through Excellent Online Experience
Digital Island, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISLD), a leading provider of network services for globalizing
e-Business applications, announced today Bell & Howell Information and Learning as a
customer, establishing in-country status for Bell & Howell in new markets and enabling
closure of online database sales to strictly regulated universities and government
institutions.
As well as penetrating new markets, Bell & Howell is improving the online experience for
researchers via Digital Island's Intelligent Network, which, according to Bell & Howell, has
decreased its complaint rate by 80% and increased customer retention and loyalty by
eliminating the slow response times and timeouts caused by the public Internet.
"We are amazed at the rapid drop in customer complaints which is a direct result of our
partnership with Digital Island," said Dan Muecke, vice president of information technology
of Bell & Howell Information and Learning. "In addition, Digital Island's local points of
presence have allowed us to sell to institutions that needed our advanced services in the
past, but were legally obliged to buy online information from in-country providers only."
"Digital Island is committed to clearing the way for multinationals like Bell & Howell
Information and Leaning to realize and maximize global opportunities," said Ruann F. Ernst,
president and CEO of Digital Island. "In this new era of flourishing e-Business, e-publishers
are quickly realizing that a superior end-user experience can truly tip the balance in their
favor."
Bell & Howell Information and Learning (formerly UMI), provides access to information from
periodicals, newspapers, out-of-print books, dissertations, and scholarly collections in
various formats to libraries, researchers, students, and other learners via the Internet
(ProQuest(R)) and microform subscriptions (UMI(R)). www.bellhowell.infolearning.com
Digital Island(R) is a leading provider of network services for globalizing e-Business
applications. Digital Island serves companies that need to securely and consistently extend
business-critical applications for marketing, selling, servicing, or distributing products via
the Internet. Digital Island's service includes global content distribution and hosting, the
localization of end-user online experiences, and a reliable global Intelligent Network, all of
which are designed to deliver the right content, to the right customer, in the right market, at
the right time. The Company has regional data centers in New York, Santa Clara, Honolulu,
London, and Hong Kong, connecting directly into 19 countries with Local Content Managers
in nine markets worldwide to provide the ubiquity and reach of the public Internet with the
quality and functionality normally available only in a corporate wide-area network.
www.digitalisland.net
Important Notice
Digital Island is a registered trademark of Digital Island, Inc. All other trademarks are
properties of their respective owners.
This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.
Important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements, include but are not limited to: the company's short operating
history which makes it difficult to predict its future results of operations; the company's
history of operating losses and expected future losses which could impede its ability to
address the risks and difficulties encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving
markets; the company's future operating results could fluctuate which may cause volatility or
a decline in the price of the company's stock; the company may not be able to price its
services above the overall cost of bandwidth causing its financial results to suffer; and other
factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
including its recent filing on Form S-1.
CONTACT: Digital Island
Aine Muldoon, 415/738-4168
amuldoon@digitalisland.net
or
Investor Relations
Tom Thompson, 415/738-4102
tomt@digitalisland.net |
