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Woodland
Hills, Calif., September 28, 2000 – Vertel® (NASDAQ: VRTL),
a leading provider of mediation software for telecommunications networks, has opened the doors on a new division designed to help telecommunications providers greatly reduce operational costs and automate service assurance -- one of the most critical and problematic back office support functions -- by managing the delivery chain more effectively.
Known as WebResolve(TM), the newly organized Vertel division is the first hosted operation to focus efforts on automated service assurance and target all communications services providers, not just traditional telecommunications service providers. By automating service assurance functions, WebResolve will offer the industry's only practical solution to the often manually processed, error-ridden transactions made necessary by incompatible support system interfaces.
"WebResolve will provide the first service assurance solution for this broader communications market -- in partnership with some of the best software and service vendors in the industry," explained Sean Gavin, vice president and general manager of Vertel's new division. "Vertel's years of experience in protocol mediation makes us the logical company to deliver hosted solutions to this marketplace."
The new division follows what has become an industry-wide move toward offering specific applications through hosted services as a means of providing the benefits of high-end software solutions without the costly burden of product licensing, maintenance, training and support.
Initial Offerings
Initially, WebResolve will focus on trouble ticketing -- the management and maintenance of records created by communications providers to track problems. Two types of services will be among the first offered: WebResolve TicketExchange, which provides interconnect solutions between individual trading partners; and, WebResolve TicketExpress, a hosted application providing a total trouble ticketing solution. In future service offerings, Vertel expects to address alarm management and service level agreement tracking applications.
WebResolve's service assurance offerings are built on top of Vertel's advanced, dynamic mediation software -- which provides a seamless interaction with all of the widely available interfaces.
High-Level Alliances
Vertel has selected and been joined by key partners and service providers in support of its WebResolve operations. Servicing the operation's critical "trouble-ticket" application will be products from Remedy(R) Corporation. The Remedy Action Request System(R) (AR System(R)) is already in use by a wide range of telecommunications service carriers.
"Remedy AR System is a workflow automation platform that is widely used by communication service providers for trouble ticketing and other components of an OSS solution," said Gary Oliver, senior vice president of eBusiness Infrastructure Solutions at Remedy. "Offering this carrier-class solution within a hosted environment allows for the quick implementation of key OSS components to existing and emerging service providers. We look forward to working with Vertel on this offering."
Vertel has also partnered with Tivoli Systems, a subsidiary of IBM, which will address management and security features for the WebResolve operation.
"Vertel's WebResolve solutions will utilize Tivoli's portfolio of ASP solutions to bring to market a set of revenue generating services which will improve cooperation between service providers and enable a higher quality of service," said Robert Davis, vice president and general manager of Tivoli's Service Provider Business Unit. "The industry is already demanding that ASPs prove they can deliver quality of service. In response, WebResolve makes it feasible for ASPs to incorporate higher quality standards into their offerings."
Vertel plans to announce additional WebResolve partners, suppliers and service offerings in the near future.
Future Investment
"The hosted application model adopted by our new WebResolve division has tremendous upside potential and will allow Vertel to offer new and existing customers a mechanism for highly reliable reporting and tracking of downstream telecommunications interconnect problems," said Bruce Brown, executive chairman of Vertel. "We began steering a portion of the company's business efforts in this direction several quarters back in order to capitalize on a much-needed, but underserviced marketplace in the communications industry.
"While we expect the creation of WebResolve to add greatly to Vertel's long term profitability, the development and furtherance of this new division represents a major investment of corporate resources during the current fiscal year and beyond," added Brown.
Vertel will approach its targeted customers for WebResolve services through both direct and indirect sales channels. More information is available at the new division's Website at
www.webresolve.com
or through the company's Website at www.vertel.com.
About Remedy
Remedy is the world's leading supplier of Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) and Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) Solutions. With more than 9,100 sites, more organizations use Remedy products for eCRM and ITSM than any other solution. Remedy delivers service solutions that accelerate an organization's move to eBusiness and raise its agility to continually differentiate itself from competitors. Remedy's fast deployment programs and radical adaptability enable organizations to move more quickly to an eBusiness model, and to do so in a differentiated way. By focusing on internal and external service as competitive differentiators, our customers continually improve both their customer interactions and internal operations to raise satisfaction and lower costs. More information on Remedy, its products and services is available on the company's Website at
www.remedy.com.
About Tivoli Systems Inc.
Tivoli software manages the foundations of e-business, extending the boundaries of traditional network and systems management from the data center across the Internet, from the desktop to pervasive devices. Leading companies around the world use Tivoli software, Tivoli Ready third-party products and Team Tivoli partner services to reduce the cost and complexity of managing heterogeneous IT environments. Tivoli solutions, encompassing management of security, storage, and mobile devices, are helping these organizations to create a technology infrastructure to support the next generation of business.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Tivoli is an IBM company (NYSE: IBM). Tivoli distributes its products worldwide through a network of global sales offices, systems integrators, resellers and IBM sales channels. For more information, visit
www.tivoli.com.
About Vertel
Vertel is a leading provider of mediation software for telecommunications networks, enabling a variety of devices such as mobile devices to become an integral, intelligent part of a company's network topology. The company's pioneering mediation software, e*ORB(TM), is being adopted by top telecommunications, e-business, and manufacturing companies. Vertel offers a variety of technologies and applications, supporting end-to-end network and service management with the highest quality of service for network operations. Vertel solutions are deployed worldwide by service providers, network operators, software vendors, and systems integrators.
Vertel also develops turnkey management applications that fit individual customer requirements through its Professional Services Unit. Based in Woodland Hills, Calif., the company also has sales offices throughout the world.
For more information on Vertel or its products, contact Vertel at 21300 Victory Boulevard, Suite 700, Woodland Hills, Calif. 91367; telephone: (818) 227-1400; fax: (818) 598-0047.
Safe Harbor Statement: Except for the historical information presented, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements should be evaluated together with the many risks and uncertainties that affect our business and may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. These include, but are not limited to: timely and successful introduction and customer acceptance of new and enhanced products, services and technologies in existing and new markets; the possibility that delays or difficulties will arise in implementing complex products, services and technologies and enabling them to work successfully with other complex products and technologies; the possible development and introduction of competitive products, services and new and alternative technologies; governmental and regulatory developments affecting Vertel and its customers; the ability to retain and attract key personnel; and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in Vertel's periodic and other reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Vertel, including, but not limited to, the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999, and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarters ending March 31 and June 30, 2000. Vertel undertakes no obligation to correct inadvertent or intentional miscommunication by members of the media of the company's formal or informal statements to the media or to update forward-looking statements made in this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement.
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