8 February 2005 – Equant (NYSE: ENT) (Euronext Paris: EQU) has signed a three-year IP VPN contract, including consulting and professional services, with Hummingbird Ltd. The IP VPN solution will securely integrate Hummingbird offices to effectively run mission-critical applications, including CRM and ERP.
This contract demonstrates Equant’s strategy to develop global, customized and integrated communications services, building on its high-end IP VPN strengths with a particular focus on growing its customer base in North America.
After considering competing proposals, Hummingbird opted for Equant’s flagship IP VPN solution, based on MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) technology. The fully managed solution will interconnect 20 Hummingbird offices based in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia. Additional services include Extended Service Management, Project Management, Application Performance Analysis and Professional Services Consulting. In addition, Hummingbird has engaged Equant to provide a consulting assessment for its messaging systems and is also considering utilizing Equant IP VPN’s voice-specific and video-specific classes of service (CoS) to cost-effectively converge its voice and video traffic with its data and IP communications.
“With five classes of service to prioritize traffic and ‘plug and play’ capabilities for our offices, Equant’s IP VPN solution is an application-enabler that has also simplified integration issues associated with a company of our size,” said Leo Heffernan, vice president of Information Technology at Hummingbird. “Equant consultants helped us design the best solution for our specific needs, and a package of Professional Services will support us as we expand the capabilities and reach of our network.”
“Our contract with Hummingbird is a good example of our consultative approach to building strong relationships with our customers,” said Sean Connolly, vice president, North America Direct Sales for Equant. “We worked closely with them to analyze their critical needs and found a solution that will help them reduce their total cost of ownership and maximize their return on investment.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Hummingbird
Headquartered in Toronto, Hummingbird Ltd. (NASDAQ: HUMC, TSX: HUM) is a leading global provider of enterprise software solutions. Its enterprise content management (ECM) solutions enable organizations to manage the lifecycle of enterprise content from creation to disposition. Hummingbird Enterprise solutions enable organizations to address critical business needs, such as information management, business continuity, compliance and risk mitigation.
Founded in 1984, Hummingbird employs approximately 1450 people and serves more than 33,000 customers, including 90 percent of Fortune 100. Hummingbird solutions are sold directly from 40 offices worldwide and through its Alliance Network of partners and resellers.
About Equant
Equant (NYSE: ENT) (Euronext Paris: EQU) is a recognized industry leader in global communications services for multinational businesses. Equant combines its network expertise with its expanded services capabilities to provide global, integrated and customized communication services to enable its customers’ key business processes. Equant serves thousands of the world’s top companies, with the industry’s most extensive portfolio of communications services and network solutions, including the market leading IP VPN used by nearly 1,300 global businesses. Equant, a subsidiary of France Telecom, consistently leads industry surveys in corporate user satisfaction.
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This release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Equant that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future results or events. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Equant with the SEC, specifically the most recent filing on SEC Form 20-F, which identifies important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including, among other things, risks relating to our history of operating losses, the unpredictability of growth in our industry, the fact that the interests of France Telecom, our largest shareholder, may differ from the interests of our other shareholders, changing technology, uncertain and changing regulatory restrictions, currency fluctuations, dependence on suppliers, network security issues, intense competition in our industry, and volatility of our stock price. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Equant on the date hereof, and Equant assumes no obligation to update such statements.
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