By Tony Cripps
Dutch IT services company Origin NV has entered a partnership with Dutch-American network services provider Equant NV which could give the Philips subsidiary a considerable boost in its ability to provide globally consistent services. Origin hopes the combination of its established enterprise application services with Equant’s global IP-based data network will greatly enhance both companies’ ability to provide end-to-end solutions in a market requiring ever greater convergence of application and network services.
The biggest attraction for Origin is the greatly enlarged geographical reach offered by Equant’s data network. While Origin itself currently operates in 31 countries, Equant’s network extends this reach to 220 countries with access points in some 2,000 cities. This will give Origin the ability to deliver its services on a truly worldwide scale, a capacity that few rival services companies are currently capable of delivering. Equant will equally be able to benefit from the partnership, enabling it to offer enterprise applications expertise in addition to its managed network service portfolio.
John Dain, VP Managed Services at Origin, believes the partnership is unique at this time, offering the most extensive enterprise application service infrastructure yet seen. It is not, however, exclusive and both parties are free to forge other similar partnerships. And while no customers have yet been signed up, Origin and Equant are currently joint bidding for several international contracts with Fortune 500 companies in the chemicals, customer goods and financial services sectors.
The effect of the relationship is likely to extend well beyond simple managed network services and enterprise systems. One area that is likely to benefit greatly is Origin’s recently-announced application hosting partnership with SAP, increasing its interests as an application service provider (ASP). It may also provide the delivery mechanism for Origin’s promised developments in web-delivered ERP services where an anonymous front end hides an underlying system built from combining the best parts from those ERP packages available. Further announcements regarding these developments are to be expected in the third quarter, says Dain.
The announcement comes at a time when both Origin and Equant are on the way up. Origin recorded sales of $1.76bn during fiscal 1998, an increase of 25% over the previous year and returned a profit of around $63m after several years in the doldrums. Meanwhile, Equant saw total revenues for fiscal 1998 of $724m, an increase of 37%.
