Lucent and Sun to Provide Next Generation Electronic
Business Offers
Business Wire - December 01, 1999 10:40
MURRAY HILL, N.J./PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 1, 1999--
"Comm" and ".com" Leaders to Develop Solutions For Enterprises,
ISPs, Application and Network Service Providers
Addressing the need for reliable, high quality electronic
business solutions, Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) and Sun
Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW) today said they will jointly define
new products and services that will spur the growth and effectiveness
of Internet commerce.
In a related announcement today, the companies said they have
allied to create the infrastructure needed for service providers and
enterprises to support next-generation Internet business
applications.
Under the collaboration, the companies said, they will jointly
package and market new communications networking systems, Internet
servers and turnkey solutions that will make it easier for
enterprises and network service providers, including Applications
Service Providers (ASPs), to build more responsive electronic
businesses and to create hosted "marketplaces" that centralize the
management of customer interactions.
"One of the biggest problems facing businesses is creating web
centers and applications that get them into electronic commerce,"
said Rich McGinn, CEO of Lucent Technologies. "These joint
electronic business solutions will solve that problem."
Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems, said, "In the
telecommunications world, when you pick up a telephone handset, you
expect to hear dialtone - every time. Mission critical business
applications are increasingly dependent on having that same reliable,
scalable communications networking infrastructure, as well as proven
applications software. This is where the Lucent-Sun collaboration
will create a significant impact."
Electronic Business Bundles
Sun and Lucent said they would create new joint offers that facilitate electronic business,
starting with four new bundles that will be available from Lucent Technologies. The bundles will
enable enterprises and service providers to offer new applications and services more quickly
and effectively. These solutions will allow both service providers and enterprises to host
applications and to create hosted "marketplaces" that centralize the management of customer
interactions.
The first offer, available immediately, is an Application Service Provider (ASP) hosted email
application. Offers under development include intelligent customer relationship management,
intelligent policy-enabled e-commerce, and communications portals.
All of these initial joint offers will include broadband access, enterprise and network
infrastructure products, server platforms, Internet/intranet and operating environment software,
communications and e-commerce middleware, applications and services. The offers will
support IP telephony, multi-service LAN/WAN, secure VPNs, advanced billing and customer
care at carrier-grade levels of quality, scalability and reliability.
ASP Hosted Applications
The ASP hosted application is the first of a set of eReady offers from Lucent that will enable
ASPs to set up scalable, high-availability web data centers to host network-based applications
for small and mid-sized businesses. eReady offers will also enable enterprise to create hosting
centers for their employees and business partners.
The first application is the Hosted Email Offer, built with a robust messaging platform from the
Sun-Netscape Alliance. The solution includes security, load balancing, and subscriber
management, resulting in high performance with operational efficiency, which are critical issues
for email hosting application providers.
The Hosted Email Offer is now in beta test. Subsequent releases of this offer will add support
for voice and fax, as well as other unified messaging services and integration with real-time
packet voice capabilities.
Intelligent Customer Relationship Management
The Intelligent Customer Relationship Management (CRM) offer, available to beta customers in
3Q00, will enable electronic businesses to dramatically improve customer service by making
intelligent customer care an integral part of business-to-consumer and business-to-business
e-commerce. The offer will be based on Lucent's CRM Central 2000 and E-commerce
applications from the Sun-Netscape Alliance.
Elements of the offer will include interactive, real-time customer interaction handling that
integrates Internet and telephony interfaces to support intelligently managed communication with
customers through multiple media types, including e-mail, web telephony, text chat, wireless and
fax.
The joint offer will also incorporate Lucent's award-winning CentreVu(R) Advocate routing
logic which distributes customer interactions to agents or other resources based on
customizable agent profiles and service commitments. In addition the Intelligent CRM offer will
provide the integration framework required to tie together web and call center operations with a
company's entire virtual extended enterprise. A key component of the offer is built-in support
for user profiling and personalization that will provide a customer the same experience, no
matter how, when or where that individual accesses the company's e-business operations.
Intelligent Policy-Enabled E-Commerce
The Intelligent Policy-Enabled E-Commerce platform, available to beta customers in 1Q00, will
integrate infrastructure and applications-level quality of service policies, and thereby enable
companies to ensure that their customers receive appropriate service for electronic business
transactions. For example, an on-line trading site could provide priority trading services to
preferred customers, or an application service provider could differentiate among users with
different service level agreements and make shared resources available to them in a prioritized
manner.
This bundle, built on Lucent's RealNet Rules(TM) policy management, and additional security
and directory products from Lucent and the Sun-Netscape Alliance, will ensure quality of
service for Internet customers.
Communication Portal
A communications portal offering, available to beta customers in 2Q00, will enable business
and hosted E-commerce web sites to support rich voice, wireless and multimedia access. The
offering will support deeply personalized web-based communications profiles, including
interfaces for conferencing, collaboration and document sharing; intelligent calendaring; and
anytime/anywhere voicemail and email access via the web.
The communications portal, for example, would allow a user to set up automatic call forwarding
when traveling, or to open a multimedia session on a PC that allows collaborative access to a
document while discussing changes with a coworker.
Professional Services
Lucent's NetCare Professional Services organization, a force of 5,500 experienced
professionals backed by the most advanced network support in the industry, will assist
enterprise and service provider customers in designing, installing, monitoring and maintaining
these solutions. The NetCare Professional Services organization serves more than 10,000
enterprise and service provider clients in more than 90 countries worldwide.
"These are the first electronic business offers we're delivering to the market together and they're
just a snapshot of what's to come," said McNealy. "Third party developers are just now
growing familiar with the IP communications and computing infrastructure. We are enabling
them to create IP applications that range across networks and deep into our business and daily
lives."
Company Information
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision--"The Network Is The Computer(TM)"--has
propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of
industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow
companies worldwide to ".com" their businesses. With $12.4 billion in annual revenues, Sun can
be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at sun.com.
Headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., Lucent designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public
and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems,
business telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Labs is the research and
development arm for the company. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit the
company's web site at lucent.com.
News Media Conference Call Scheduled
A news media conference call concerning this announcement is scheduled for today, Dec. 1, at
12:30 P.M. Eastern Time. Scott McNealy, Sun chairman and CEO, and Rich McGinn, Lucent
chairman and CEO, will be participating on the call.
To access the call, please dial 800-553-0349 for the U.S. and 612-288-0340 for international
participants. No access code is required.
A replay of the news media conference call will be available. To access the replay number
please dial 800-475-6701 or 320-365-3844 for international callers. The access code is
"484980."
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Sun Netra, Solaris, Sun Enterprise, Hot Java and The
Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
in the United States and in other countries.
Press announcements and other information about Sun Microsystems are available on the
Internet via the World WideWeb using a tool such as Netscape Navigator or Sun's HotJava
browser. Type sun.com at URL prompt.
CONTACT: Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill
Dick Muldoon, 508-370-7399 voice; 508-387-7297 pager
rpmuldoon@lucent.com
or
Sun Microsystems, Palo Alto
Maria Villarino, 650-786-3205 voice; 408-921-2385 mobile
maria.villarino@sun.com |
