Tuesday March 27, 8:28 am Eastern Time
Press Release
Exodus Marks Significant Progress of GlobalCenter Integration
Major Milestones Completed Including Conversion of East Coast IDCs, Integration of Customer Response Teams
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2001--Exodus Communications®, Inc. (Nasdaq:EXDS - news), the leader in complex Internet hosting and managed services, today announced significant progress of the integration of GlobalCenter(TM), acquired by Exodus® in January 2001.
With dedicated senior staff managing the process, Exodus expects to complete the integration by June 2001. Exodus is now serving approximately 4,500 customers housed within 5.1 million gross square feet in 42 Internet Data Centers (IDCs), worldwide.
GlobalCenter Call Response and Monitoring operations have been integrated into Exodus' state-of-the-art Response Center in Santa Clara, Calif. As a result, customers are already benefiting from the integration, which has included intensive customer service and support training to ensure quality and speed of response to queries. Call, email, and monitoring response activities were not only combined, but also redesigned to integrate the best practices of both companies to enhance efficiency and accuracy. Professional Services staffing has also been increased to offer additional services to former GlobalCenter customers.
Integration Milestones to Date
``We are pleased to have made such great progress and met our primary goals in one of the industry's largest-ever acquisitions,'' said Ellen M. Hancock, chairman and CEO of Exodus. ``Because GlobalCenter and Exodus share a commitment to providing customers with best-of-breed technology and facilities to best serve their needs, our teams and business practices were a great fit and highly compatible. To date, 99 percent of the GlobalCenter employees have been directly integrated into Exodus.''
Full integration of GlobalCenter and Exodus operations is expected before the end of the second quarter of 2001. To date, Exodus has achieved the following milestones:
Sales teams were fully trained and integrated the day the acquisition became final.
All corporate staff functions (Finance, HR, Legal, Marketing, Engineering) were integrated within weeks of the acquisition close.
Customer service and support training has been completed across all products and services.
Customer calls have been centralized and integrated into the Exodus Response Center in Santa Clara. The Response Center solves approximately 80 percent of all calls, alerts, and emails, with the remaining 20 percent hot handed to the IDCs where hands-on service is required. As a result, customer call response time has improved by 18 percent.
Former U.S. and European GlobalCenter IDCs are being connected to the Exodus backbone and the full range of Exodus products are being made available to all customers.
Assessment of all former GlobalCenter skill sets has been made and used as a basis to integrate employees effectively into their new positions. This will enable Exodus to better serve its customers going forward.
Products and pricing rationalization has been completed to standardize and simplify Exodus' offerings.
``Customer service has been a top priority for Exodus at every stage throughout the acquisition and integration. The measurable gains in quality and speed of response attest to our success,'' said Hancock.
Integration Team Leads Accelerated Progress
In order to help focus and manage the integration on a global scale, Exodus has leveraged integration lessons learned from its previous eight acquisitions as well as the work with a number of leading integration consultants including Accenture.
``Exodus' technology capabilities were key to their seamless integration of GlobalCenter in a shorter timeframe than expected,'' said John Walz, a partner with Accenture. ``Consequently, Exodus has been able to simultaneously address improving customer service while making operational changes in the IDCs.''
Exodus' integration team, led by Mike Connor, vice president, global integration, has accelerated the transition. With a lengthy history of managing complex projects, including improving quality and reliability for global organizations such as Apple Computer and front and back office product development for ADP's Brokerage Services Group, Connor and his team are identifying and implementing best practices from both companies to improve Exodus's ability to deliver world class products and services to its customers. Laurie Priddy, former GlobalCenter co-COO, and current senior vice president of Operations at Exodus, has been a vital team leader working through all of the integration challenges and recommending optimal solutions.
``Our integration team started meeting and planning well in advance of the acquisition completion so that we would be ready to move forward, and that has proved instrumental in our success to date,'' said Don Casey, president and COO, Exodus. ``Furthermore, we put Mike Connor and a dedicated, knowledgeable team in key positions where they can provide the most value. We have been extremely pleased at how smoothly the integration process has gone. The success proves what is possible when all levels of the company are committed to the goals and focused on execution.'' |
