Verio, a subsidiary of NTT Communications and a leader in global IP solutions, today announced that Easter Seals has selected Verio to deliver a hoste...

Verio, a subsidiary of NTT Communications and a leader in global IP solutions, today announced that Easter Seals has selected Verio to deliver a hosted messaging solution for an initial group of 1,400 employees at 30 affiliate locations across the county. Verio will implement hosted NTT/VERIO BusinessXchange services, providing Easter Seals a centralized email client, as well as messaging and collaboration capabilities.

Easter Seals is a non-profit provider of health and human services, assisting more than one million individuals with disabilities each year at more than 500 service sites in the United States and Puerto Rico. Easter Seals national headquarters in Chicago provides assistance to more than 90 affiliates through management training, implementation of best practices and consultation services. Previously, Easter Seals provided an internally-managed, centralized email client for its affiliates across the country. However, an in-depth analysis of email offerings in the market and potential providers indicated that the organization could streamline efficiencies and save on maintenance costs by outsourcing their email and messaging requirements to a solution provider.

NTT/VERIO BusinessXchange is a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange, providing users with access to Microsoft Outlook's email client and meeting scheduler, as well as interactive group calendars, collaborative task management, centralized document sharing and contact management tools. Since BusinessXchange is a hosted application, Verio will assume all costs of application and infrastructure upkeep for the Easter Seals implementation, benefiting Easter Seals with reduced cost of maintenance, including a usage-based payment structure, and freeing the organization from future investments in applications and upgrades.

“We were spending time and money dealing with day-to-day hiccups in the system, such as placing downed servers back online, updating user profiles and other general maintenance issues,” said Franklin Woodland, director, Information Technology, Easter Seals. “Our primary customers are our affiliates and we are continuously working to help them communicate with their respective communities more efficiently, but there was clearly a better way to do this.”

Easter Seals' market analysis led the organization to look at Verio's offerings. Woodland explained that they were attracted to Verio's experience as a world-class service provider, adding that Verio possessed a clear understanding of Easter Seals' need for strong customer service and an economical solution in order to enhance their relationship with affiliates. “Our usage-based agreement, and the dedicated attention to our account are specifically tailored to the needs of our organization,” he said. “The high costs of sustaining our email application in-house, as well as a need to boost security features for our affiliates, are the two chief reasons Easter Seals decided to outsource the organization's email,” said Donald E. Jackson, COO, Easter Seals. “The choice to outsource to Verio will allow our IT staff to focus on the needs of our organization and the services provided for children and adults with disabilities by Easter Seals. This will help us save on the cost of maintaining an email client and the infrastructure to support it. Verio has made it possible for us to invest our savings back into providing needed services.”

“As a grassroots, community-based organization, it is absolutely critical that Easter Seals affiliates can communicate effortlessly with their communities, and we are pleased that NTT/VERIO BusinessXchange is helping them do this more effectively,” said Isabel Ehringer, president of Enterprise Hosting for Verio. “Verio is dedicated to supporting organizations such as Easter Seals by helping them realize economical solutions that will allow their causes to thrive.”


About Easter Seals
For 85 years, Easter Seals has been providing services that help children and adults with disabilities gain greater independence. Its primary services - medical rehabilitation, job training and employment, child care, adult day services, and camping and recreation - benefit more than one million individuals and their families each year through more than 500 centers nationwide.


About Verio
Verio Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications (NTT Com), which provides long distance and international telecommunications reaching over 200 countries worldwide. Verio is one of the world's largest operators of Web sites for businesses and a leading provider of global IP solutions. NTT Com and Verio market their global IP solutions under the NTT/VERIO brand. The company offers businesses a broad range of Internet services, including Web hosting, dedicated access, virtual private networks, and managed service offerings, among other enhanced services. Verio supports its operations with highly reliable and scalable global infrastructure and systems including the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network, and provides Web hosting services to customers in more than 146 countries. The combination of Verio and NTT Com offers services to meet the growing and diverse needs of all businesses, including small to medium businesses, large global enterprises and multi-national corporations.

For more information on Verio, please visit www.verio.com