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Technology Stocks : BAY Ntwks (under House) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank Ferrari who wrote (4148)	2/10/1998 12:42:00 PM
From: George A. Roberts	Respond to of 6980

Symbol: BAY (BAY NETWORKS INC Date Posted: 2/10/98 6:26:23 AM ECS: Princes moving fast upstream with GBP 0.5 million WAN from ECS FEB 10, 1998, M2 Communications - Leading independent UK systems integrator, ECS, has won a GBP 0.5 million contract, for the provision of a 15 site Wide Area Network (WAN) for food and soft drinks industry giant, Princes Ltd. The contract includes WAN hardware and software, BT circuits and ongoing maintenance and support for a three year period. Princes took the decision to replace its existing business system (a bespoke IBM AS/400 solution) with SAP/R3, running on a Compaq/NT platform. The implementation of this new business system was the ideal opportunity for Princes to review its data network and to consolidate all data transmission onto a single, high-performance infrastructure, as a means of improving communication and service to both its customers and its internal departments. As part of the Mitsubishi Corporation, Princes Ltd is committed to an aggressive growth strategy. The existing WAN for PCs extends only to four sites, and the other intersite networking is handled by dumb terminal LAN controllers. This is unsatisfactory, and Princes decided to call upon ECS to design and install a new, scalable WAN solution. High availability and resilience are also of key importance. Several companies were approached, but in the end, "it was ECS's attention to detail that won them the contract," said the Project Manager at Princes Ltd. "ECS took great pains to get a full appreciation of our business requirements before any technology was even discussed." ECS suggested an expandable, flexible solution based around Bay Networks equipment, with Bay Networks Access Stack Node Routers at the two central sites, at Bradford and Liverpool, and Bay Networks Access Node and Clam remote access routers used to connect smaller sites. Leased lines providing connections at data rates of between 64Kbps and 1Mbps will be used, with ISDN used as back up at every site. Extensive testing, fault simulation and configuration will be carried out in the ECS connectivity labs prior to installation. The installation, which will be completed in Spring '98, links over 400 users at 15 office, factory, distribution and warehouse sites, and will be managed by Bay Networks Optivity Network Management System. ECS is providing Princes with ongoing maintenance and support across the entire WAN with the main sites covered by ECS' 24 hour, 365 day, 4 hour fix service. Princes' Project Manager was impressed with ECS' approach. "Whereas other companies asked what we wanted, in terms of equipment and lines, ECS actually asked us how we wanted our business to function. I am confident that ECS will be a good business partner. It is large enough to provide a good depth of technical resource, and small enough to respond quickly and not lose sight of individual customers." Princes Ltd is part of the Mitsubishi Corporation and is famous for supplying packaged foods and soft drinks to supermarkets and small retailers throughout Britain and Europe. Princes' turnover in 1997 was GBP 402 million and is forecast to grow significantly by the Year 2000. ECS is an independent systems integrator specialising in local and wide area network projects. The company prides itself on its comprehensive range of services, which include strategic consultancy, performance analysis, and the design, supply and implementation of LAN/WAN solutions. Partnerships with the world's major vendors such as Bay Networks, Cisco, 3Com and others enable ECS to objectively assess the relative merits of individual products and to provide business solutions which address the customers' needs precisely. These are backed with effective project management and flexible ongoing support services.