October 15, 2003 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Alcatel (alcatel.com) and Hewlett-Packard (hp.com) said Tuesday they have agreed to jointly develop and market voice, data and multimedia IT and communications solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) through partnerships with telecommunications service providers.
“This agreement with HP leverages Alcatel’s global knowledge of service providers and draws upon our leadership positions in broadband access and in selling enterprise communications services to a global base of customers. Now we can deliver the industry’s broadest suite of advanced business services to the SMB market,” said Serge Tchuruk, chairman and chief executive officer of Alcatel. “By selecting the Alcatel and HP offering, telecom service providers will broaden their SMB customer base, and improve customer loyalty.”
France Telecom (francetelecom.com), the two companies reported, is the first service provider to sign on to the new initiative.
“HP is the worldwide leader in the SMB customer segment today generating more than $21 billion in revenue annually and we are pleased to work with Alcatel to create integrated solutions designed to remove the complexity SMBs worldwide face when trying to purchase and set up their computing and telecommunications environments, said Carly Fiorina, chairman and chief executive officer of HP. ?This joint offering will enable SMBs to get more out of their IT and telecommunications while enabling them to spend more time focused on running their businesses.”
The two companies also announced the launch of Ready Office Program, a single point of contact for sales and support to SMBs.
