The competition:
DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 1997--Lucent Technologies today
announced it has formed a professional and network support services
business called NetCare(R) Services to help business customers better
manage their increasingly sophisticated communications networks.
NetCare is being built on the company's existing professional and
network support services to meet growing business customer demand for
its expertise in designing, integrating, managing, maintaining and
operating data, voice and video networks. NetCare already has an
experienced corps of 1,100 consultants, engineers and technicians, and
will hire 300 more during 1997 to meet demand for its services.
"Technology is moving at a fast pace, and when it comes to technology
for networks, businesses have more choices than ever before," said
NetCare President Jeff Akers. "Today's communications networks have
become hybrids of equipment and software from different vendors, making
their design, integration, management and maintenance a challenge. As
more and more businesses focus their resources on serving customers,
they are turning to networking experts like Lucent for help in making
their networks run efficiently and reliably."
According to industry experts, the world-wide addressable market for
network-oriented professional and support services is projected to grow
about 18 percent annually, from between $15 to 20 billion in 1997 to
more than $40 billion by 2000.
NetCare includes Lucent's data services group based at its Customer Care
Center in Largo, Fla.; its voice and video services group based in its
Customer Care Center in Denver; and its network applications consulting
business for call centers, messaging services and computer telephony
integration, which draws on support from both the Largo and Denver
Customer Care Centers. NetCare's services are based on software and
applications developed by Bell Laboratories.
"By bringing together our professional and network support services into
one business, we can better focus our skills on serving customers'
growing and changing needs in communications networks, and set NetCare
on a very strong course for growth," Akers said. "Lucent already is a
recognized leader in servicing and supporting voice networks. Now,
businesses will come to rely on Lucent to design, maintain and manage
their multimedia networks." Today, NetCare has more than 5,000
customers. Seventy percent of Fortune 500 companies use NetCare
services.
Lucent will continue to provide services for its voice equipment through
its Sales and Service division, its Technical Services Organization, and
its 6,000 technicians throughout the world. NetCare will tap into these
resources when customer needs overlap.
NetCare will focus on consulting, integrating, managing and maintaining
multimedia, multivendor communications networks and solutions in three
areas: Enterprise Networks, Network Applications, and Management
Services.
The Enterprise Networks segment supports a business' essential voice,
video and data communications capabilities over multiple locations. For
example, NetCare maintains a multivendor enterprise network for
CoreStates, a financial institution with more than 500 branch locations
in the mid-Atlantic states. NetCare is delivering project management,
equipment staging, on-site installation and on-site maintenance of
multivendor data network equipment in the CoreStates branch network.
NetCare provides maintenance services for many vendors' communication
equipment and software, including Agile Networks, Bay Networks,
PictureTel, Ascend, Cisco, Paradyne and Sync Research.
NetCare's Network Applications focus includes call centers, messaging
and computer telephony integration. Businesses use call centers more and
more to provide a range of customer services, from taking orders for
merchandise and travel reservations to providing technical support.
Lucent is a leading provider of call center technology and services in
the United States. NetCare's consulting and integration services
supported Lucent's installation of a 12,000-agent, multi-national call
center for USAA, the member-owned insurance company in San Antonio,
Texas. USAA provides all of its member services through its nine call
centers in the United States, Frankfurt and London.
After analyzing USAA's business operation and understanding how the
company wanted to serve its members, NetCare consultants helped design a
call center solution, and developed and implemented an educational
program that would enable USAA's associates to serve its members in the
most efficient and effective way. NetCare engineers also integrated some
of USAA's existing call center equipment into the new Lucent system,
helping the company to retain its earlier investment.
NetCare's Management Services, which is a new market for Lucent, will
take over the complete management and operation of all or part of a
company's network. It also will provide customer care services for other
high-tech businesses through Lucent's own Customer Care Centers. For
example, technicians at these centers would be trained to provide
on-line technical assistance for another company's products or services.
NetCare services are available now. For more information, customers may
call 800-334-1096 or contact the NetCare web site at www.4Netcare.com.
Lucent Technologies designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public
and private networks, communications systems and software, consumer and
business telephone systems, and microelectronics components. Bell
Laboratories is the research and development arm for the company.
CONTACT: Lucent Technologies
Marianne Carlton John Callahan
908-953-7520 (O) 202-530-7045 (O)
908-273-6339 (H) 703-758-1449 (H)
REPEATS: New York 212-752-9600 or 800-221-2462; Boston 617-236-4266 or
800-225-2030; SF 415-986-4422 or 800-227-0845; LA 310-820-9473
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