Business Week, July 12, 1999:
AT&T Solutions
Maximizing Customer Service
When it comes to creating a competitive advantage the best course is to develop a strategy to serve and satisfy the
customer. AT&T Corp., Basking Ridge, NJ, is a master at creating competitive advantage. For their corporate
customers, the AT&T Solutions Managed Bandwidth Service (MBS) program provides the ultimate in effective,
efficient customer service. AT&T Solutions is a networking professional services firm with expertise in managing
corporate networks.
Business Benefit --- Creating competitive advantage
"We architect, design, build, and manage corporate networks, and provide application oriented solutions that
range from the WAN to the desktop," said AT&T Solutions' Ed Nalbandian, managing partner for Managed
Networking Solutions.
When AT&T Solutions MBS was rolled out in May 1998, it enabled customers to transition from the older,
narrowband TDM (time division multiplexing) to the newer Frame Relay and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode)
broadband services.
Managing Complexity: Customers like IBM Business Recovery Services, a provider of disaster recovery
services, rely on AT&T Solutions MBS to assure themselves instant ability to manage complex and immediate
networking challenges. AT&T Solutions subscribes to the 'keep it simple' rule -- building the core of its worldwide
MBS network with products from a single, reliable vendor. This allows AT&T Solutions to assure a uniform level
of service, as well as reduce costs.
That's why AT&T Solutions relies on the network delivery platform from Newbridge Networks as the mainstays
of their MBS offering. A key feature of the Newbridge products is ATM multi-services capacity. The result: a
single managed solution capable of handling all corporate network voice, image, video, and data traffic.
Under New Management. AT&T Solutions is able to offer true managed services thanks in part ot Newbridge's
Global Services Management Platform.
"Newbridge is known for its sophisticated management platform," said Deal DeLitta, AT&T Solutions MBS
product manager, who explained that Newbridge's strengths include a wide range of products supporting
everything from T-1 multiplexing to OC-12 (622 Mbps) ATM backbones.
More important, all Newbridge devices can be managed under one system whereas other companies have
different management systems for different products. "They had the best offer on the table -- Newbridge was
clearly ahead in this area," DeLitta pointed out.
Seeing Everything. "We managed networks with just about every vendor out there," Nalbandian added. "At the
end of the day, when it comes to caring for our customers' networks, we need to be able to design and manage a
broad array of networking technologies and vendors."
AT&T Solutions sees all its customers, all the time. Clients receive 24x7 monitoring and maintenance from
sophisticated network management centers around the world.
AT&T Solutions MBS also gives users the flexibility to adjust bandwidth, allocations, switch trunks from voice to
data, re-route call volume based on time of day, or change network flow to meet disaster recovery needs.
Managing Risk. "We are investing a significant amount of money and talent into testing many solutions in our labs
in order to stay current with technology," said Nalbandian. "The advantage for our clients is they don't have to
commit huge resources to a certain technology, which could lock them into one path when everything could change
18 months down the road. We can offload much of the risk for our clients."
The bottom line is a win-win-win partnership between AT&T Solutions, Newbridge, and the clients, who gain
effective customer service.
Newbridge Networks
GSMP
The Newbridge Global Services Management Platform (GSMP) is a fully managed and integrated set of
networking products optimized to deliver advanced, standards-based global broadband services.
GSMP lets carriers like AT&T give thousands of corporate network customers a full, end-to-end view of their
global networks encompassing private line, Frame Relay and ATM services. This includes key parameters such as
configuration, network status, Service Level Agreement and performance reporting. Plus customers get visibility of
their network resources down to the network node, card and port level through a Web-based interface. The range
of products used by AT&T includes Newbridge's bandwidth managers, multiservice ATM switches, access
switches, concentrators, and LAN service units.
Newbridge Networks, of Kanata, Ontario, Canada, designs, manufactures, markets, and services total
networking solutions to organizations in more than 100 countries. Newbridge customers include the world's 350
largest telecommunications service providers and 10,000 corporations, government organizations, and other
institutions. Founded in 1986, the company employs more than 6,000 people on five continents.
brs.ibm.com
MAY 11, 1999, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA--IBM today announced an agreement with AT&T to enhance IBM's business
continuity network (BRSNet), enabling IBM to provide next-generation end-to-end business continuity services that are
more cost-effective and flexible to customers' changing business needs.
IBM Global Services' BRSNet is the industry's first network built solely for delivering business continuity solutions. AT&T
Solutions, AT&T's networking professional services unit, will provide advanced managed networking capabilities for
BRSNet through a dedicated global network management center in White Plains, N.Y.
Available in July, 1999, the enhanced network will provide customers with improved business continuity services, such as:
Reduced recovery time of customers' networks in the event of a system failure
Lower costs for network continuity services through flexible bandwidth availability and payment structures tailored to
customers' individual needs
"We've been using IBM Business Recovery Services for our continuity needs and have been very satisfied with their
dependable support," said Marshall McGraw, manager, IT Architecture and Strategy, Phillips Petroleum Co. "Now with
the added infrastructure and reliability from AT&T, IBM is showing us it's very serious about the business-continuity
business and wants to provide us with the best support possible. This is a quantum leap in the recovery industry and has
potential real added value for high-availability business-continuity services, depending on low-cost network availability."
Leveraging AT&T's networking-centric business continuity solutions, this next-generation IBM business continuity network
is also the foundation for future network recovery offerings. Key components of IBM Global Services' next-generation
BRSNet include:
High-speed, multi-service integrated network access platform supporting: DS1 to OC-12 interfaces, video
applications, legacy private line, frame relay, ATM, SNA and IP
Flexible cost structure -- Customers pay for only the bandwidth they need
Flexible bandwidth availability to better address customers' requirements for test and speedy recovery
Reliable network recovery services monitored by a dedicated AT&T Solutions global network management center
Survivable SONET ring architecture and a fully redundant ATM core backbone network topology
"Today's businesses are relying more and more heavily on their IT systems to keep their businesses running and therefore
need protection from system failures," said Anthony Martinez, General Manager IBM Business Recovery Services. "With
the help of AT&T we can provide network services to assure our customers that their businesses will be operable virtually
around-the-clock.
"AT&T Solutions is proud that IBM Business Recovery Services has selected us to manage their complex networking
environment through our Managed Networking Solutions services, " said AT&T Solutions Vice President Ed Nalbandian.
"As part of this multi-million dollar agreement with IBM, AT&T Solutions will provide a multi-service backbone for a
next-generation network that links IBM Business Recovery Service Centers worldwide."
Last year, AT&T Solutions introduced its Managed Bandwidth Service, which integrates corporate voice, image, video
and data network bandwidth requirements at a customer's premises with a common, managed end-to-end global platform
of AT&T services. AT&T Solutions will deploy Managed Bandwidth Service capabilities in both BRS customer locations
and AT&T points of presence to support BRS business requirements. BRSNet will also utilize the AT&T Solutions
MBSview Real Time Function tool, which provides BRS with on-line views of a customer's business recovery network
configuration and network status.
AT&T Solutions Managed Bandwidth Service is based on Newbridge Networks' MainStreetXpressTM ATM 36170
Multiservices Switch.
About IBM Global Services
IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology services provider, with 1998 revenues of approximately
$29 billion. Services is the fastest growing part of IBM, with more than 130,000 professionals serving customers in 160
countries. IBM Global Services integrates IBM's broad range of capabilities -- services, hardware, software and research
-- to help companies of all sizes realize the full value of information technology. For more information visit the IBM Global
Services Web Page .
Over the past six years, IBM Global Services Business Recovery Services has successfully recovered more than 300
customers from many types of disasters including Hurricanes Georges, Opal, Erin and Andrew, the Oklahoma City and
World Trade Center bombings, the Northridge, California, earthquake; infrastructure disasters, such as telecommunications
failures, or electrical outages; and operational disasters, such as failure in hardware or software.
For more information about IBM Business Recovery Services, go to the Business Recovery Services home page at
brs.ibm.com, or call 1-888-837-8277.
About AT&T Solutions
Based in Florham Park, N.J., AT&T Solutions provides seamless solutions that maximize the competitive advantage of
networking-based electronic commerce applications. It uses state-of-the-art tools and processes to operate and manage
voice, data, video and Internet /intranet services, including local and wide area networks, PBXs, voice-processing systems
and desktop computers. In 1998, AT&T Solutions received about $7.5 billion in contracts for new long-term business --
including a $5 billion contract from IBM, a $1.4 billion contract from Bank One Corporation and a $750 million contract
from Citibank. More information about AT&T Solutions is available at www.attsolutions.com.
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MainStreetXpress is a trademark used by the Siemens/Newbridge alliance for comprehensive solutions in broadband
communication. No agency relationship, partnership or joint ownership of a legal entity is to be inferred or implied by the
term alliance. |
