BOSTON -- AT&T (NYSE: T) today announced it has won a multimillion dollar networking services contract from Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS), the world's largest office products retailer. The three-year contract extends an existing agreement for data and voice services in North America.
"AT&T offers a portfolio of products and services that allows us to develop solutions that support our brand promise of making it easy to buy office products," said Michael Ramsey, vice president of Information Services at Staples. "With AT&T's help we will continue to offer innovative and reliable networked solutions in our retail stores, handle customer contacts efficiently in our call centers, and serve our online customers."
By terms of the agreement, AT&T will support Staples' online business and nearly 1,400 store locations in the United States and Canada with local, long-distance and toll-free voice services, frame relay data service and high-speed Internet access. In addition, AT&T Labs is working closely with Staples on an advanced technology platform that will seamlessly migrate the company's e-commerce applications to an Internet Protocol-based networking solution.
"We see AT&T as a resource that can help us develop new approaches to addressing our networking challenges of the future," added Ramsey.
AT&T will provide services to Staples through its bundled OneNet offer, which simplifies purchasing, and managing sophisticated local and long-distance voice and data networking services.
With the secure AT&T BusinessDirectÒportal, Staples gains around-the-clock online access to real-time reports on network performance and direct connection to electronic billing and trouble management systems.
About Staples
Staples, Inc. invented the office superstore concept in 1986 and today is the world's largest office products retailer. With 60,000 talented associates, the company is committed to making it easy to
buy a wide range of office products, including supplies, technology, furniture, and business services. With 2003 sales of $13 billion, Staples serves consumers and businesses ranging from home-based businesses to Fortune 500 companies in the US, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Headquartered outside of Boston, Staples operates approximately 1,600 office superstores and also serves its customers through mail order catalog, e-commerce and contract businesses. More information is available at www.staples.com.
About AT&T
For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.
