Archived News & Events Articles

Marconi selects Micromuse's Netcool Suite for european network operations

NETCOOL®/OMNIbus for Voice NetworksT Will Support Managed Network Services for Marconi Customers, Including Telcos and IT Service Providers

SAN FRANCISCO - Micromuse Inc. (Nasdaq: MUSE), the leading provider of fault and service-level management software, today announced that Marconi plc has selected the Netcool suite of applications to provide realtime monitoring of network faults and service availability. Marconi provides advanced communication solutions, key technologies, and services for telecommunications service providers, Internet service providers, as well as public and private networks worldwide.

Marconi will deploy Netcool/OMNIbus for Voice Networks and other components of the Netcool suite at its new Network Operations Center (NOC) in Liverpool, England. The Liverpool NOC was recently completed to handle Marconi's expanded portfolio of managed network services for European telecommunications operators and IT service providers. The NOC, which manages Marconi's synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH/SONET) technology, System X telco switches, and other network devices, will use the Netcool suite of applications to provide a complete integrated fault management solution for its platform infrastructure.

"In today's competitive environment, providing customers with high-end solutions for managing their networks and keeping pace with the growing need for outsourcing customer operations, while maintaining low operating costs, are not easy objectives to meet," said Bill Eckels, Vice President for Managed Network Services at Marconi. "However, with its out-of-the-box deployment and quick integration capabilities, the Netcool suite will enable us to meet our goal to provide customers with cost effective real network management tools and best-in-class technology solutions."

After a thorough analysis, Marconi selected the Netcool suite for its off-the-shelf ability to correlate event information and provide realtime updates on network faults from multi-vendor, multi-technology networks across the infrastructure, efficiently allowing network managers to create relationships between faults and the availability of services. Abilitec, a leading systems integrator, will be responsible for deploying the Netcool suite and will provide network and managed service integration of the system with Marconi's NOC, including comprehensive training, consultancy and support services. The software was sold through Micromuse Authorized Reseller channels.

"The Netcool suite provides a proactive solution for optimizing Marconi's infrastructure performance and service assurance," said Peter Shearan, Micromuse's Senior Vice President, Technical Services. "We are delighted to have been selected to help Marconi further its commitment to provide a cost effective, scalable and highly reliable network foundation."

About the Netcool Suite

Micromuse's Netcool software suite collects management data from more than 200 management environments and network devices, including voice, data and Internet. Fault data is rapidly processed and filtered by the Netcool ObjectServerT, an in-memory database. The Netcool application allows operators to build views of service availability in realtime, helping them manage networks more efficiently. Because it is scalable and deploys rapidly, the Netcool business model allows service providers to expand their networks as their markets grow.

About Marconi plc

Marconi plc is a global communications and IT company, with 49,000 employees world- wide and sales in more than 100 countries. It supplies advanced communications solutions and the key technologies and services for the Internet.

About Micromuse

Micromuse Inc. (Nasdaq: MUSE) is the leading provider of fault and service-level management software. Micromuse was named one of the Top 25 Best Performers in the Wall Street Journal's Shareholder Scoreboard, and has recently been recognized in the Forbes 500, Business Week's Info Tech 100, Bloomberg's Top 100 Stocks, Barron's 500, and the San Francisco Chronicle 500. Micromuse customers include AirTouch, AT&T, BT, Cable & Wireless, Cellular One, Charles Schwab, Deutsche Telekom, Digex, EarthLink, GTE, ICG Communications, ITC DeltaCom, MCI Worldcom, NextLink, and a number of financial investment concerns. Headquarters are located at 139 Townsend Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94107; (415) 538-9090. The Web site is at www.micromuse.com.

Netcool is a registered trademark of Micromuse. All other trademarks and registered trademarks in this document are the properties of their respective owners. Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations, but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from the forward- looking statements include the following: fluctuations in customer demand, the Company's ability to manage its growth (including the ability to hire sufficient sales and technical personnel), the risks associated with the expansion of the Company's distribution channels, the risk of new product introductions and customer acceptance of new products; the rapid technological change which characterizes the Company's markets, the risks associated with competition, the risks associated with international sales as the Company expands its markets, and the ability of the Company to compete successfully in the future, as well as other risks identified in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission Filings, including but not limited to those appearing under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and on Form 10-K on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Company's Web site.

< back to News/Events archive