Using its small-company savvy and big-company capabilities, e.spire said
yesterday it won a blue-chip account from larger competitors.
(Daily Record Baltimore; 03/24/99)
A subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Co. has named the Annapolis Junction-based
telecommunications company as its network service provider.
PictureVision, Kodak's Herndon, Va.-based online photo processing
subsidiary, selected e.spire to connect its customers online to its more than
40,000 photofinishers in stores, shopping malls and other retail locations.
The service allows customers to place orders online and have their photos
digitized for electronic cropping and e-mail suitability. e.spire's network
replaces a group of local Internet service providers and network providers that
had been cobbled together for PictureVision.
"We have opted for a network company with a single nationwide
infrastructure," said Phil Garfinkle, CEO of PictureVision in a prepared
statement.
Anurag Lal, e.spire's vice president of data and Internet product
management, said e.spire won the contract over competing proposals from IBM and
MCI/WorldCom by using small-company advantages.
"At the end of the day, I think we were a lot more flexible and didn't try
to sell the services off the shelf," he said.
For instance, many of Kodak's 40,000 retail locations did not have enough
photo-processing volume to justify installing a frame relay or T-1 Internet
connection and e.spire reacted by offering the cheaper dial-up service or
modified T-1, according to need.
But Lal added that providing big-league network monitoring services was also
important.
"We supplied services normally reserved for a Chrysler or Ford that get a
global network," he said. "We've turn-keyed this function and taken it down
market."
PictureVision will be given access to a Web site that has all its kiosk
locations laid out on a map. If the network to one of those locations goes
down, it turns a different color. A double click on that location reveals the
nature of the problem.
The Web site will also relay information that tells PictureVision how each
of its servers is performing in processing orders.
Lal said this capability is key since it allows a quicker process of working
out the kinks of e.spire and PictureVision working together.
"Rather than pointing fingers back and forth," Lal said. "We can gain total
visibility" of what portion of the network is malfunctioning.
With the network functioning, PictureVision envisions grabbing a large
market share in the online photograph business. Its outlets already account for
50 percent of all photographs processed in the United States, Garfinkle said.
America Online is expected to boost PictureVision's business this summer
when it introduces a link complete with a voice saying "You've got pictures."
e.spire will realize greater profits as PictureVision expands and requires
more substantial network elements, Lal said.
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