Abatis Systems

Long Lead Press and Industry Analyst Tour

March 15-31, April 5-16

Summary / Wrap Up Report

Prepared April 19, 1999

Overview

For the launch of Abatis Systems Corporation and the Business Services Architecture, Abatis executives briefed a total of 27 top tier industry influencers, including 16 high-level press and industry analysts on the East Coast and 11 on the West Coast. This represents a highly successful completion of Phase I of the comprehensive public relations program.

These important weeks were Abatis’ first formal introduction to the highly influential press and analyst community. Overall, the tour was extremely successful in reaching the highest and most critical players in the IP networking, data communications and telecommunications industries. The most beneficial and influential meetings were with John of Analyst Firm, Jane of Analyst Firm and Peter of Analyst Firm. These analysts are powerful and significant players in the data communications and telecommunications marketplaces. Additionally, Abatis met with Sue, Senior Editor of Trade Pub. As a direct result of this meeting Abatis was chosen as one of Trade Pub “Hot Start-Ups of 1998/99” and will be prominently featured in the June issue cover story – a coup for Abatis as it coincides with Supercomm, the official launch event for Abatis.

Abatis executives CEO, VP MARKETING, CTO, and Director Marketing presented clear, concise messages and were highly successful in positioning the company and technology – IP networking and advanced services – for the carrier market. Overall, both press and analyst audiences responded to the messaging very positively. Both audiences recognized that Abatis’ positioning is unique and responded favorably to Abatis’ “Consumable IP” mantra. Almost all analysts and press noted “No one else has pulled it all together like this.”

Following is a brief summary of each meeting including meeting highlights, perceptions and next steps:

Pre-Tour Analyst Briefings

Analyst Firm

Harry

Highlights: Harry was extremely helpful in preparation to the launch. Abatis invested in a day of Harry’s time early on in the launch process. Harry then agreed to review the presentation materials and provide feedback immediately prior to the launch. He recommended Abatis bring the launch forward and go on tour sooner than planned. He was aware of some upcoming announcements and felt Abatis would be better served to announce its offering sooner rather than later. He was right. Harry is very positive about the Abatis solution and feels strongly that Abatis is going to gain a lot of attention. He’s a definite advocate of Abatis and the Business Services Architecture.

Next Steps: Keep Harry apprised of all developments moving forward – particularly with new customer wins and strategic partnerships. Harry agreed to be a press reference.

Analyst Firm

Virginia

George

Highlights: Overall, Virginia was very excited by the concept. She was somewhat skeptical – claiming “it’s a little pie in the sky.” Virginia thinks it’s a great vision, but it is an incredibly complex solution. She believes we have a good 10 years before we see the kind of functionality Abatis is talking about (vis-à-vis carriers being able to offer it) – end-to-end is a long way off. She knows carriers will have to move to this eventually, but it won’t be immediate. She feels it’ll be a very slow process. Virginia doesn’t believe that the carriers have the talent today to pull this off. She also commented on the carriers’ lack of accuracy when it comes to billing for services today and she doesn’t have a lot of confidence in them getting something this complex right in the future. In terms of partnerships, Virginia recommended Abatis broaden its horizons – everyone wants to partner with Vendor for directories – “it’s the politically correct thing.” Virginia suggested Abatis speak to Vendor, Vendor and Vendor. She feels Vendor isn’t going to have anything out until at least 2000. George is a newcomer to Analyst Firm, in fact that was his first day with the firm. He listened and provided some input. Mostly he was there to observe.

Next Steps: George quickly followed up with Abatis after the tour and provided a very useful introduction/business contact. Keep in contact with Analyst Firm and make sure they’re up to date on customer wins and partnerships. Very interested in this from the enterprise side. Won’t be using Virginia as a reference because she had so many doubts, but will revisit the idea after a second briefing. Need some milestones under out belt first to convince her this is a reality.

Analyst Firm

John

Highlights: John was extremely excited about the Abatis architecture. He thought it was a “hugely successful concept” and likened it to the cable TV model. John feels as others do that Abatis should aim high in terms of partnerships. He also believes Abatis should aim at the big carriers – making them feel comfortable that this will fit into what they have already. He used Carrier and Carrier as examples of carriers who will be interested in this architecture as long as you show differentiation and profitability.

Next Steps: John will be a very good reference for Abatis and agreed to speak with the press when Abatis goes out on tour. NOTE: John was apparently very influential with Trade Pub magazine and impacted their decision to award Abatis with the Hot Start-Ups honor. Need to follow up with John – he said he could provide names of some contacts at Carrier. He thinks they’ll be very interested in this. The relationship with John should be cultivated – he will continue to be a strong ally for Abatis.

Analyst Firm

Chris

Highlights: Chris feels it is a very interesting story and said he hasn’t seen anything like this from any other vendor. Overall he liked the concept and thinks Abatis is leading the pack in terms of the technology. However, he feels Abatis’ impact is low because it doesn’t have the channels or an installed based – therefore the impact to the market at this time is low. He had some good points in terms of how Abatis should communicate the architecture messages to the press – 1) clearly and concisely explain what the enterprise wants, 2) show what the carriers can offer and 3) use the services-on-demand example. He played devil’s advocate, claiming most businesses are still internalizing their internal services – they won’t be ready for this yet.

Next Steps: Keep Chris updated on developments. PR Firm does not recommend using Chris as a reference at this time. Follow up with him on the product announcement and make sure he is kept up to speed on developments with partnerships. In the longer term, as things progress, Chris will become an ally. He’s interested in the technology and the concept, but Abatis’ needs to prove itself in his mind before he’ll buy into it completely.

West Coast Press/Analyst Meetings

Trade Pub

Mary

Paul

Rebecca

Highlights: This was an extremely successful meeting and was attended not only by Trade Pub’s editor-in-chief, Mary, Paul and Rebecca. Meeting more editorial staff than just Mary was a real bonus for Abatis and will prove fruitful to ongoing relationships with the publication. Mary felt that Abatis has an all-encompassing message that is changing the service provider dynamic.  She feels that the market is heading in this direction and that Abatis is the first to pull it all together. Mary picked up on the changing role of the service provider as a strategic part of the business and agreed that this is important.

Next Steps: Mary was impressed with the Abatis solution and asked us to meet with Shira Reporter while in Chicago.  She invited Abatis to provide contributed articles for both Trade Pub and Trade Pub on the Business Services Architecture. Mary also assigned the story on the spot to Rebecca for the Supercomm issue in June.

PR Firm to continue to work closely with Mary and Reporter on future announcements.  Abatis to provide Mary with an article outline by May 17 for possible inclusion in the September/October issue of Trade Pub.

Analyst Firm

Michael

Highlights: This meeting proved successful in establishing a relationship with Michael. Michael discussed a recent Analyst Firm case study with Vendor where they recommended that Vendor move towards services-on-demand and he feels that Abatis is building the solution to deliver exactly this.

Perceptions: Michael was in tune with finding new revenue opportunities for carriers and agrees that the market is moving in this direction. He also believes that Abatis has created a good model that no one else is talking about yet. However, he feels that competitors such as Vendor, Vendor and Vendor aren’t far behind and thinks that the ESP without the Network Service Contractor is similar to the Vendor solution.  Howard also thinks that “Consumable IP” has negative connotations.

Next Steps: PR Firm to continue to keep Michael informed of Abatis news.  Arrange to meet at Supercomm to discuss Abatis ESP product announcement.

Analyst Firm

Greg

Highlights:  The Abatis team established a very solid relationship with Greg who has recently left Analyst Firm to form his own consultancy. Greg, who knows the carrier market well and is regularly quoted in the press, feels that some key points in the Business Services Architecture are automatic provisioning, which allows service providers to deliver services, and the ability to leverage existing infrastructure.  Greg remarked, “I give it a thumbs up.  I’ve heard pieces of the story but no one has pulled it all together.”

Perception: Greg feels that CLECs, who have the least to lose, will be very interested in the architecture and also ISPs because they want to know how to make money from IP.

Next Steps: Abatis to discuss a custom case study project with Greg that identifies the Consumable IP/advanced services market and discusses how to deliver value-added services.  PR Firm to continue to keep Greg in the loop on Abatis news and pre-brief for critical news.

Analyst Firm

Jane

Highlights: Jane was extremely impressed with the entire Abatis concept and solution, calling it “fascinating,” and terming it “AOL for the enterprise.” Jane feels that the basic selling point is automatic provisioning, which will address the enormous amount of time people spend installing and reinstalling software. She feels that the Business Services Architecture is brilliant and nicely thought out. The briefing over-ran by 20 minutes. Jane had another briefing but she didn’t want to leave because the Abatis story was so exciting. Jane agreed to be a press and customer/partner reference.

Perception: Jane feels it is important for Abatis to work with very big partners early on.  She recommended that Abatis take itself very seriously, think big and shoot for the moon!  Jane was a bit concerned that Abatis may be giving away the store and allowing the competition to jump on the bandwagon by making an architecture announcement without a product announcement.

Next Steps: Continue to keep Jane informed. Arrange to meet at N+I or Supercomm.

Analyst Firm

Raj

Highlights: This briefing was originally scheduled with Joe but he was tied up in another meeting. As a result the Abatis team met with a junior level analyst at Analyst Firm.  However, the meeting was a successful relationship-building exercise with Raj, a new analyst with the firm. Raj feels that the Abatis concept is a good one but thinks that it will be a challenge to get service providers to bite—this represents a lot of change for them and they don’t like change.

Next Steps: PR Firm to arrange briefing with a more senior person at Analyst Firm. PR Firm to revisit Joe for a briefing – possibly at Supercomm.

Trade Pub

Jerry

Highlights: Jerry  is a key contact at the publication and Abatis is now on his radar screen as a result of the tour. Jerry asked that Abatis brief him on the Enterprise Service Point announcement in the first week of May to guarantee Supercomm issue coverage.  He also mentioned that Abatis should submit an entry for an awards at Supercomm.

Perceptions: Jerry appears to be taking a wait-and-see approach.  He doesn’t feel that it’s possible to guarantee SLAs if you don’t control all of the points in a network and thinks there could be custom-self-provisioning issues between the enterprise and the carrier and migration issues for carriers.  It is critical that Jerry be briefed early and thoroughly on the product to provide a proof point for the architecture.  He did mention that the briefing “wasn’t a sleeper on a late Friday afternoon!”

Next Steps: Continue to develop a strong relationship with Jerry.  PR Firm to continue to keep Jerry updated on Abatis news and pre-brief him on critical news from the company. NOTE: Jerry is on of the judges for the awards at Supercomm. PR Firm to ensure Abatis executives stay in touch with Jerry especially leading up to the show. Trade Pub increasing its foothold as a leading publication in the carrier market space. Trade Pub is an influential publishing house (owns Trade Pub, Trade Pub and Trade Pub among others).

East Coast Press/Analyst Meetings

Analyst Firm

Eric

Highlights: The Abatis team was very successful in establishing a good rapport with Eric . This is a very difficult publication to influence since most of the editorial is provided by industry analysts such as Analyst of Analyst Firm, Peter of Analyst Firm, and Tom of Analyst Firm Abatis was successful at educating on its technology.

Perceptions: Eric feels that carriers are in total denial about data revenues and services and that they just want to push voice.  Given this, he wondered how receptive carriers will be to the Abatis message.  Eric remarked that Analyst Firm takes Tom very seriously because he’s been a long time contributor.  He also noted that Analyst Firm does not like to take vendor-contributed articles but would like to rely on Abatis as market experts as staff and analysts are writing trend pieces.

Next Steps: Maintain a good relationship with Eric and aggressively pursue editorial opportunities that tie in with Abatis messaging.  Continue to keep Eric advised of product, partner and customer developments.  Invite Eric to visit the Abatis booth at Supercomm for a product demo.

Trade Pub

Joe

Brian

Highlights: Abatis won Trade Pub over in this very successful meeting.  Both Joe and Brian were very favorable on the architecture.  Joe especially liked the three-party video analogy.  Brian questioned the difference between the Abatis solution and access gear equipped with dynamic provisioning.  VP MARKETING clarified the advantages and simplicity of the Business Services Architecture to the end user.

Next Steps: Continue to keep Trade Pub informed of progress.  PR Firm to follow-up with Joe for inclusion in the May 17 Supercomm preview issue and arrange to pre-brief Joe on the product announcement for inclusion in the May 24 issue.  Additionally, Joe is interested in viewing the product demo at Supercomm.

Trade Pub

Shira Reporter

Highlights: Following on from Mary’s recommendation, the meeting with Shira Reporter further strengthened Abatis’ relationship with Trade Pub. Reporter will be a primary contact for Abatis at the publication.

Perceptions: Reporter feels the Abatis approach makes sense because it’s low risk and low cost.  She referenced an Trade Pub IP survey that determined that carrier’s can’t afford to get in to data pricing wars and need other ways to differentiate.  Reporter thought that the Abatis solution provided a good means of differentiation for service providers.

Next Steps: Reporter is interested in hearing about partner announcements as they become available.  She would also like a few contributed article ideas by May 7 for possible inclusion in a late summer issue.  PR Firm to keep Reporter in the loop on Abatis news.

Trade Pub

Sue

Highlights: The briefing with Trade Pub magazine was extremely successful both in terms of establishing a relationship with Sue and conveying the benefits of the Business Services Architecture. VP MARKETING clearly and concisely communicated the barriers to service deployment that Abatis is addressing and CEO provided a brilliant Ted Turner/CNN analogy that helped to crystallize the architecture for Sue. As a direct result of this meeting Abatis was chosen one of Trade Pub “Hot Start-Ups of 1998/99” which will appear in the June issue.

Perceptions: Sue noted that Tom abhors vaporware and believes that Abatis is addressing a real need with the Business Services Architecture if Tom convinced Abatis to come out early.  Sue also thinks that Abatis had found a way to help service providers grow.

Next Steps: Abatis is to provide Sue with an abstract by April 16 for a possible contributed article in the July/August time frame.  PR Firm to continue to keep Sue informed of Abatis news and pre-brief on critical news.

Analyst Firm

Peter

Highlights: Another very successful analyst meeting for Abatis. Peter asked very pointed and somewhat difficult questions to test the message and he flushed out the architecture and product line for holes/thoroughness. Peter feels that the Abatis message and Business Services Architecture are very strong. Peter was very impressed with the billing aspects of the architecture and asked that VP MARKETING forward the SDL to him.  After reviewing the SDL Peter agreed to include Abatis in his May Analyst Firm column.

Perceptions: Peter agreed with the Abatis concept and overall messages and admitted that his difficult questions were to test the thoroughness of the message.  Peter is concerned that investors won’t believe that Abatis is capable of making a dent in the carrier space given that it’s a start-up.

Next Steps: PR Firm to continue to keep Peter abreast of news and pre-brief for critical news.  Arrange to meet at Supercomm for a product demonstration.

Trade Pub

Loring

Highlights: Loring was very impressed with the Business Services Architecture and said “The possibilities of making this a very flexible and expandable architecture are profound.”  Regarding the competitive space, Loring felt that developments would be interesting especially with regards to Vendor but felt that Abatis was the only solution that was end-to-end, hardware and software.

Perceptions:   Loring felt that Abatis’ biggest competition would come from players such as Vendor, Vendor, Vendor and Vendor but felt these vendors would still have issues with provisioning which Abatis has solved.

Next Steps: As a direct result of this briefing Abatis was featured prominently in Loring’s April 5 article titled “Analysis: Router startups pursue open software road.”  PR Firm to continue to keep Loring informed of developments and pre-brief on critical news.  Arrange to meet at Supercomm for a product demo.

Trade Pub

Kathleen

Highlights: Unfortunately, Kathleen was extremely pressed for time and was only able to give Abatis 30 minutes. VP MARKETING very successfully introduced the architecture in the time allotted, but further briefings will be necessary to ensure Kathleen properly understands the Business Services Architecture and the Consumable IP concept.  Her initial reaction was “everyone is saying this.”  Kathleen did contact Tom to inquire about Abatis.

Next Steps: PR Firm to continue to keep Kathleen updated on Abatis news and arrange to pre-brief her on the product announcement.

Trade Pub

Andrew

Highlights: Andrew was very impressed with the Business Services Architecture and remarked several times, “This is so cool!”  Andrew mentioned that Abatis would tie in perfectly for his article in the June Trade Pub supplement called New Public Networks. Andrew commented that he has heard about the advanced services concept from other vendors but that no one else is talking about provisioning.  He thought the presentation was great and that the Telco bill page crystallized the story.  Andrew is very interested in future partner announcements.

Perceptions: Andrew seemed to be very familiar with the Vendor product line, however, he understood the advantage of the Network Services Contractor’s ability to map provisioning to the specific application.  Vendor’s offering can’t do this.   

Next Steps: PR Firm to follow-up with Andrew in mid-April regarding the New Public Networks supplement for the June issue and continue to keep Andrew updated on critical news, particularly partner announcements.

Analyst Firm

Tim

Highlights: Abatis successfully conveyed its key messages and core competencies to  Tim and clearly communicated the benefits of the Business Services Architecture.  Tim remarked, “This is a fascinating architecture.  You’ve zeroed in on the QoS aspect and network convergence piece that are/will be issues.  The NSC is a fantastic value-add.”  Overall Tim thinks the Business Services Architecture is an impressive solution.

Perceptions: Tim feels that there is a small window of opportunity for ‘excess bandwidth’ and believes there is tremendous latent demand that will quickly fill up pipes.  Regarding the Abatis ESP, Tim believes that a true next-gen converged network edge device becomes a fairly complex device where the more capabilities you cram in the more you can be challenged by a purpose-built device.

Additionally, Tim feels that there are established ATM players in the same space as the Abatis ESP and that Abatis will need to show good integration and differentiation with the NSC to overcome what’s already in the space.

Next Steps: Tim would like more detail on the flow classification scheme.  PR Firm to arrange to pre-brief Tim on product announcement which will give him more detail.  Abatis should consider a N+I meeting or face to face meeting while on the East cost to visit Jay.

Post-tour Phone Briefings

Trade Pub

Peter

Highlights: Peter was very impressed. He thinks that the separation of the network and services layer combined with open publishing is a great model. Peter asked if we could reconvene on April 16 to discuss a specific story that he is working on for the June issue of Trade Pub.

Perceptions: Peter mentioned a Trade Pub article that he had written last year that discussed moving from bit pipes to services.  He feels that the Abatis solution gives validation to his story and called the solution “very nifty.”

Next Steps: PR Firm to contact Peter in late May to arrange a Supercomm meeting at his request.  PR Firm to continue to keep Peter updated on Abatis news.

Trade Pub

Gail

Highlights: This meeting was in response to a story Gail is working on for the May 15 issue of Trade Pub on new integrated access devices being unveiled at Supercomm.  Abatis was able to run through the entire Consumable IP presentation with Gail and establish a relationship with another key person at Trade Pub.

Next Steps: Continue to keep Gail apprised of Abatis news.

Analyst Firm

Jay

Highlights: Analyst Firm is a tough nut to crack and Jay, Research Director at Analyst Firm is no exception. However, Jay was very positive. He feels that the Abatis concept makes sense and that the architecture is very clean. Jay is very interested in learning more about the Business Services Architecture and the product line, particularly how Abatis is able to guarantee QoS. Jay asked that a white paper discussing QoS be sent to him as soon as it’s available and invited Abatis to visit with him on their next East cost trip.

Perceptions: Jay questioned how long it will be before a Vendor, Vendor, or Vendor get to the same point as Abatis and believes that Abatis needs a unique, underlying technology that the others will not be able to develop.  Jay felt very strongly that the key differentiator for Abatis is the ability to guarantee QoS.  Jay also commented that service providers have never done well in selling anything beyond transport.

Next Steps: PR Firm to follow-up with Jay to arrange a face-to-face meeting during the product launch and coordinate delivery of the QoS white paper ASAP.  PR Firm to continue to keep Jay apprised of Abatis news.

Analyst Firm

Bill

Highlights: Bill provided a great deal of valuable feed back and seemed to be impressed with the Abatis solution. He feels that the Business Services Architecture is a good idea and a valid way forward for ISPs. Bill thinks Abatis’ strong points are ease of provisioning new services, middle software and billing/OSS. Bill suggested another meeting at N+I or Supercomm for a ‘white-board’ discussion.

Perceptions: Although very impressed with the overall concept, Flanagan feels that the Business Services Architecture will be a difficult sell to service providers because it represents a fairly large investment in training and marketing.

Flanagan also suggested that the presentation be adapted to fit different audiences.  For example, the current presentation is good for the press and analyst community but for a customer/service provider ease of provisioning new services and billing partners should be highlighted, particularly because service providers are looking for ways to increase revenues.

Next Steps: PR Firm to pursue a future meeting at N+I or Supercomm.  PR Firm to continue to brief Flanagan on Abatis news.