Equant Signs Five-Year, $35 Million Contract to Connect ZF Friedrichshafen Locations Using Equant IP VPN
WASHINGTON & FRANKFURT, Germany--Nov. 1, 20032, 2003--| German-based global automotive supplier chooses Equant to connect 119 locations in 25 countries |
Equant (Euronext Paris: EQU), an industry leader in global data and IP services for multinational businesses, has signed a 5-year, $35 million managed network contract with ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF).
Equant will provide ZF - a leading worldwide automotive supplier for driveline and chassis technology, based in Friedrichshafen, Germany - a customized IP VPN solution to connect 119 corporate locations in 25 countries. ZF needed to upgrade its legacy data network because it had reached the limits of its capacity and flexibility. ZF's acquisition of another automotive supplier, ZF Sachs, also necessitated reduction of business complexity. Consequently, ZF sought a single global service provider with worldwide reach and selected Equant from several competing proposals.
"Equant IP VPN with differentiated classes of service fulfills ZF's requirements for cost-efficiency, scalability, security and application prioritization," said Peter Kraus, vice president of Information Technology at ZF Friedrichshafen. "Equant IP VPN supports existing and future investments in applications by ensuring ready access to applications throughout ZF."
Using Equant IP VPN, ZF can run applications such as SAP, computer-aided design software and Lotus Notes while protecting business-critical data from unauthorized external access. ZF will also leverage Equant IP VPN's convergence platform to enable locations in Brazil, Hungary and the headquarters in Friedrichshafen to communicate using Voice for IP VPN.
"ZF will benefit from the ability to prioritize its voice and business critical applications," said Detlef Spang, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing for Western Europe, Equant. "This prioritization ensures optimum voice quality and network response time, which should help ZF gain competitive advantage and meet its bottom-line goals."
Equant will monitor the fully managed solution 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Authorized ZF employees will have access to service level and real-time reports on network performance via WebVision, Equant's Web-based customer service portal. The flexibility of Equant IP VPN will allow ZF to easily and economically add new offices to the network on a "plug-and-play" basis.
ZF selected Equant's single point of contact option that will provide support through a dedicated interface in Germany for network management and troubleshooting worldwide. This direct interface into Equant will log and track all service interaction between ZF and Equant, ensuring prompt action concerning moves, adds and changes, as well as rapid resolution of faults.
About Equant
Equant (Euronext Paris: EQU) is a recognized industry leader in global data and IP network and integration services for multinational businesses. The Equant network has unmatched seamless reach, connecting key business centers in 220 countries and territories, with local support in more than 165 countries. Building on more than 50 years of experience in data communications, Equant serves thousands of the world's top companies with the industry's most extensive portfolio of managed network services, including the market-leading IP VPN used by 950 global businesses as of Oct. 1, 2003. Equant, a subsidiary of France Telecom, was named Best Global Carrier 2003 and Best Managed Service 2003 at the World Communication Awards and consistently leads industry surveys in corporate user satisfaction.
About ZF
ZF Friedrichshafen AG is a leading worldwide automotive supplier of driveline and chassis technology with a total workforce of 53,300 employees at 119 locations in 25 countries. Around one-third of the ZF Group revenues (2002: EUR 9.2 billion) are accounted for by products that have gone into series production within the past five years. In order to remain successful with innovative products in the future, ZF invests five percent of its annual revenues in research & development.
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 Form 20-F, which identify 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 Equant's history of operating losses, the unpredictability of growth in Equant's markets, changing technology, uncertain and changing regulatory restrictions, Equant's international operations, dependence on suppliers, network security issues, competition, and volatility of Equant's stock price and risks relating to the combination with Global One. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Equant on the date hereof, and Equant assumes no obligation to update such statements.