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AT&T NetWare Connect Services Gets Boost from New Indirect Sales Channel
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. -- March 26, 1996 -- AT&T said today that it has implemented an indirect sales channel for AT&T NetWare Connect Service, and that more than 80 specially trained sales agents are now selling the service. The new sales agents, who underwent rigorous selection and training prior to selling AT&T NetWare Connect Service, are select Novell, Inc. Gold and Platinum resellers. By year-end their numbers are expected to grow to more than 350. AT&T NetWare Connect Service allows businesses to expand their reach by extending local-area network (LAN) services and applications beyond their traditional bounds. It combines AT&T's Worldwide Intelligent Network and several Novell technologies to enable businesses to tie LANs together into a wide-area network (WAN), makes LAN resources available to remote and mobile users, and extends a business' LAN applications and information beyond the immediate enterprise to partners, suppliers, and customers. Using AT&T NetWare Connect Service, businesses can minimize capital investment needed to build WANs, leverage investment in existing LANs and LAN applications, and avoid the burden of managing WANs by outsourcing their network management and complexity. The indirect sales channel complements AT&T's direct sales force for AT&T NetWare Connect Service. Each channel focuses on the market segments for which it is best-suited, but both work together when appropriate opportunities arise. "This represents a new approach for AT&T," said Michael Keith, AT&T vice president for Middle Market, Business Markets Division. "The relationship between the indirect channel and the AT&T direct sales force adds proven sales experience in local-area networks and systems integration expertise. It also will help us grow the market for new services like this one and will provide customers with added levels of service and expertise." Keith pointed out that the agents possess extensive expertise in local area networks (LANs) and LAN applications, and already have formed close relationships with their customers. Under the AT&T indirect channel program they function as agents rather than resellers. The agents are extensions of the AT&T sales force and the customers they serve are AT&T customers. Selling AT&T NetWare Connect Service differentiates them from their competitors and is synergistic with their sales of other products. In addition, their customers enjoy AT&T's worldclass customer care and network support, and pricing advantages resulting from AT&T's economies of scale. "The development of this channel brings AT&T proven sales experience in local-area networking and systems integration expertise," said Erik Grimmelmann, marketing vice president, AT&T Gateway Services. "This relationship with AT&T allows selected Gold and Platinum channel partners to offer their customers a new class of network service that combines Novell's leadership in networking software with AT&T's communications infrastructure." Prospective agents are identified by either the Novell field sales organization or the AT&T field organization from among Novell's Gold and Platinum channel partners who have met specific criteria, including completion of the Infrastructure and Advanced Access training curriculum. The Novell-designated channel partners are recommended to AT&T field organizations for training and authorization, and AT&T selects those companies best-qualified to represent it in the sale of AT&T NetWare Connect Service. The agents benefit in three ways: * They extend their sales of other products such as NetWare 4. * They have professional services opportunities to extend their relationship with their customers. * Agents of AT&T NetWare Connect Service receive a residual corresponding to the customer usage of the network.
"Novell's resellers have been instrumental in helping the more than 50 million NetWare users build their local-area networks," said Tom Arthur, general manager of Business Internet Services at Novell. "These resllers represent the networking industry's premier roster of integrators, developers of customized applications and information technology salespeople, and will be an invaluable resource for our customers as they move to take advantage of new business-class internetworking and intranetworking through AT&T NetWare Connect Service."
New AT&T NetWare Connect Service Agents Computing Ability, Inc., an Englewood, New Jersey systems and network integrator specializing in client/server computing solutions, offers AT&T NetWare Connect Service to its customers in lieu of having them build their own wide-area network infrastructure. Jonathan Cohen, vice president of sales with Computing Ability, believes the service is a strategically important offer for both his company and his customers. "AT&T NetWare Connect Service provides the ideal method of connecting our customers because it provides a scaleable and manageable wide-area network with enhanced security features and a single point of access to all network resources," says Cohen. Alpine Computer, Systems, Inc., a Holliston, Massachusetts-based systems integration and professional engineering services company, uses AT&T NetWare Connect Service as the underlying wide-area network transport service for the company's Alpine Remote Management Services (ARMS) -- services that enable network professionals at Alpine offices to remotely diagnose and manage network systems at Alpine customer locations. "AT&T NetWare Connect Service is the low-cost, high-reliability, high-security wide-area network service for providing efficient and cost-effective inter-company communication," says Robert Willis, president and CEO of Alpine. "ARMS, combined with AT&T NetWare Connect Service, enables us to offer medium-sized companies with networks of 100 to 1,000 nodes, an affordable way to reliably manage their systems and avoid the high costs associated with acquiring the personnel and developing the infrastructure to maintain the networks in-house," added Willis. Gracon Services, based in Okemos, Michigan, is an advanced network communications provider and integrator that provides data communication network design, custom protocol solutions for small, medium, and large companies. "AT&T NetWare Connect Service affords systems integrators and network integrators significant opportunities for opening new doors and increasing their service revenues," says Mike Grady, president of Gracon. "AT&T NetWare Connect Service is a natural fit for our business strategy that includes offering customers advanced wide-area network technology." For more information on AT&T NetWare Connect Service, or to be put in touch with a local authorized agent, customers can call 800-243-5288 or visit the AT&T NetWare Connect Service home page at www.att.com/wan_connect. on the World Wide Web. NetWare is a trademark of Novell, Inc. registered with the U.S. Patent& Trademark Office and NetWare Connect is a trademark of Novell, Inc. used by AT&T Corp. under license from Novell, Inc.
Press Contacts:
Mike Miller
Cheryl Hall
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