Amdahl Leverages SafeHarbor.com to Deliver Mission-critical Customer Support Services

Business Wire, Jan 31, 2000

Business Editors, High Tech Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 2000

Amdahl Endorses SafeHarbor.com's Trend-Setting Knowledge-Based

Approach with Additional $1 Million Investment

SafeHarbor.com, the pioneer in Web-focused, self-help customer support services, today announced that Amdahl Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of global powerhouse Fujitsu Limited, has entered into a partnership with the Washington based start-up to provide support services for a variety of Web initiatives.

In addition, Amdahl is making a $1 million strategic investment in SafeHarbor.com. This partnership and investment acknowledges the growing trend for graphically rich self-help Web solutions and the importance of SafeHarbor.com's unique approach.

By leveraging SafeHarbor.com's hosted customer support solutions, Amdahl will be able to offer clients the next generation in customer support while at the same time lowering in-house support costs and reducing time to market. Under terms of the agreement, SafeHarbor.com will provide support services for a number of Amdahl Web initiatives including pre and post sales support, and potentially technical support for the Fujitsu Teamserver(TM) line of NT hardware sold by Amdahl. In addition, a new Amdahl venture, TrustedAnswer.com(TM), will bundle selected SafeHarbor.com support services with their own tools and support expertise to provide a hosted support solution Amdahl plans to take to market this year.

This powerful partnership between two customer service innovators reflects growing demand for superior, Web-based customer support solutions that reflect the evolution in how consumers request and process information.

&uot;SafeHarbor.com has established an early leadership position with their innovative model for self-help customer service that reflects consumer's high expectations for immediate, clear and accurate information. Both the customer and the company benefit from the quality of service and information that the SafeHarbor.com solution provides,&uot; commented Robert Mirani, an analyst with The Yankee Group, an IT consulting firm.

By partnering with SafeHarbor.com, Amdahl can now accelerate into new areas knowing that its customer service capabilities are available immediately.

&uot;Amdahl and our customers see Web-based support as a way to hold down costs and provide superior support,&uot; stated Mike Taylor, General Manager of TrustedAnswer.com. &uot;SafeHarbor.com's self-help, graphical Web service delivers next-generation solutions that the typical end-user can easily understand and use to solve problems. After an extensive investigation of the support market we came to the conclusion that SafeHarbor.com's infrastructure, technology and vision added considerable value to our TrustedAnswer.com venture, and that both a partnership agreement and strategic investment in the company made sense.&uot;

&uot;Today's Web-savvy customers don't want to wait in a `virtual line' to get their answers - they demand immediate information. Our contact center approach focuses extensively on knowing our client's customer needs intimately and anticipating likely issues ahead of time,&uot; commented Bo Wandell, president of SafeHarbor.com. &uot;Like many technology companies pursuing Web initiatives, Amdahl realized early on that Web-based support services are a pillar in the foundation of the intensely competitive Web market. By deploying SafeHarbor.com's graphical, knowledge base-driven support, Amdahl will have an immediate leg up on the competition as they sell Teamserver NT hardware, and as they contract to provide Web-based support for their customers through TrustedAnswer.com.&uot;

Located at a former nuclear plant site in Satsop, Washington, SafeHarbor.com's 44,000 square foot customer services facility boasts extensive system and power redundancy and network communications connectivity that is capable of handling phone traffic for the entire United States. This attention to infrastructure affords SafeHarbor.com customers a level of comfort in knowing that their customer service support will not fail. The infrastructure is managed by a team of expert Knowledge Engineers specially trained to incorporate the development, management and delivery of knowledge bases into SafeHarbor.com support services offerings.

About SafeHarbor.com

SafeHarbor.com is a customer support and interaction services company located in Satsop, Washington, with marketing and sales located in Seattle, Washington. SafeHarbor.com solutions are designed for progressive companies that want to deliver superior, Web-focused customer service while reducing start-up and support costs and time to market. SafeHarbor.com clients include e-Charge, Punch Networks, Etera.com, Elite.com, ImageX.com and Academic Systems. SafeHarbor.com is located on the Web at www.safeharbor.com.

About Amdahl Corporation

Amdahl Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, provides integrated computing solutions that meet the needs of many of the largest users of information technology in the world. Amdahl develops and deploys systems, services and support that meet the needs of the world's most computer-intensive organizations and environments. With more than 28 years of experience delivering large-scale computing and client/server technology, the Amdahl mission is to deliver innovative systems, services and support to lead customers to the most complete and powerful data centers of the 21st century. Amdahl is located on the Web at www.amdahl.com; TrustedAnswer.com is located on the Web at www.trustedanswer.com.