NDC Communications Partners With Business Sales and Corporate Sales Divisions of Micro Electronics to Provide Networking Solutions

Business Wire, March 16, 1999

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 1999--

Niche Product Line Offers Fast, Easy-to-Use, Integrated Workgroup Switches, Hubs, and Wireless LAN Solutions to Small/Medium Businesses

and Fortune 1000 Companies

NDC Communications Inc. Tuesday announced a partnership agreement with both the Micro Center Business Sales and Corporate Sales Micro Center divisions of Micro Electronics, which also owns the Micro Center retail stores.

Through the partnership, both divisions will distribute NDC's workgroup switches, dual-speed hubs and wireless LAN (local area network) products.

Micro Center Business Sales and Corporate Sales Micro Center will incorporate NDC's products into the complete networking solutions that they provide for small- to medium-sized businesses, and workgroups and corporate branch offices of Fortune 1000 companies, respectively.

"This distribution partnership reflects an expansion from our relationship with the Micro Center retail stores into the corporate arena, especially workgroup environments in large enterprises," said Andy Chang, vice president of sales and marketing for NDC.

"We offer a specialized product line designed for convenient, high-speed networking, which is ideal for fast-paced workgroups in emerging enterprises."

Chang is quick to point out that workgroups are not the only ones who benefit from NDC's products. Small- to medium-sized businesses can install a flexible solution that easily enables them to ramp up their network infrastructure as the company grows and more users come on board.

Corporate Sales Micro Center plans to leverage NDC's switches, hubs and wireless LANs at a workgroup or departmental level, where an integrated solution will connect to an enterprise network backbone.

"The products' plug-and-play usability reduces the amount of time and resources that IT departments require to install and maintain the units, and they complement larger enterprise solutions such as those from 3COM, Bay Networks, and Cisco," said Heath Critchett, vice president of sales (Fortune 1000).

With a focus on small- to medium-sized businesses, Micro Center Business Sales intends to use NDC's products to create or supplement a company's network backbone.

"The affordable pricing of NDC's products is very appealing to our target customer, who wants maximum value for their technology investment," said David Twite, general manager (small/midsize business accounts). "With a wide range of products, NDC delivers the speed, reliability, and growth potential to accommodate their dynamic needs."

Both divisions of Micro Electronics currently resell NDC's 5- and 8-port Plug-n-Switch(TM) 10/100Mbps autosensing, self-managing switches as well as 8- and 16-port Superflex 10/100Mbps Dual-Speed hubs. Both products connect 10Mbps Ethernet and 100Mbps Fast Ethernet devices (hubs, cards, and other equipment) together on a network.

"These products give us the tools we need to accommodate customers who have expanding networks and require more bandwidth to handle additional users," added Twite.

In early April, Micro Electronics will also offer NDC's InstantWave IEEE 802.11-compliant wireless LAN solutions including wireless LAN adapters and access point. With a 2Mbps transfer rate, 1000-foot coverage radius and roaming features, this SNMP-based wireless solution will serve as a wireless extension to a company's existing network infrastructure.

Pricing and Availability

Both Plug-n-Switch and Superflex Dual-Speed Hubs are currently available through both Corporate Sales Micro Center and Micro Center Business Sales.

The 5-port Plug-n-Switch (model no. NSH500S/A) carries a U.S. list price of $229. The 8-port Plug-n-Switch (model no. NSH800S/A) has a list price of $329.

The 8-port Superflex Dual-Speed Hub (model no. NDS108/A) carries a U.S. list price of $189. The 16-port Superflex Dual-Speed Hub (model no. NDS316/A) has a list price of $359.

About NDC Communications

NDC Communications is a leading worldwide supplier of small office/home office and small business networking products, workgroup networking solutions and wireless LAN connectivity products. The company's SOHOware product family was developed to provide consumers with the most user friendly networking products available on the market today and embody the SOHOware slogan -- More Net. Less Work.

SOHOware products provide an easy-to-use and, in some cases, intelligent network setup to ensure the utmost convenience and enable consumers to maximize the networking power of the Internet and corporate intranets for their own business applications.

NDC Communications' U.S. headquarters is based in Sunnyvale. The company is privately held. For more information on NDC Communications and its products, call 800/632-1118 or visit the company's Web site at http://www.ndclan.com. For more information and specific details about NDC's SOHOware product line visit the Web site at http://www.sohoware.com.