Our Statement of Continued Commitment
After reading Lucent's recent announcement to "officially" DA the BNS-2000/Datakit II VCS product line,
CBM of America, Inc. and Datatek Applications Inc. felt compelled to jointly share the following statement.
Let us reassure you that Lucent's announcement was expected and not a surprise to anyone. During the last
two years, Lucent's direct manufacturing efforts, and new product enhancements or developments have been
dormant. In our opinion, this letter was simply intended to be a legal milestone to allow Lucent to wind
down any existing contractual customer support obligations, and to eventually reduce all overhead costs
associated with providing on-going BNS/Datakit hardware/software support.
For CBM and Datatek it will be business as usual. Our two companies have never been more committed to
supporting your BNS/Datakit networks or developing cost effective Datakit to IP migration solutions than
we are today. In fact, for several years now, our two companies have been working very hard to develop new products that will assist our customers with this eventual transition.
CBM and Datatek have combined our respective strengths in order to provide the most cost effective and
comprehensive BNS/ Datakit support available anywhere in the world. Our vision is focused and our charter
is clear. The on-going development of new products to help you gracefully migrate your legacy network,
while protecting your huge imbedded base of investment, will continue at an aggressive pace. Extensive
network migration choices, hardware maintenance sparing and software support options will continue to
strengthen, not whither.
We "all" know that an eventual BNS/Datakit network to an IP-based migration is part of our customers'
future plans. It's part of ours too, but we also know that our customers are facing the reality of
continued capital budget freezes, lagging profits and extensive RIF's.
While budgets tighten, the pace to migrate to the cutting edge IP-based technology will surely slow down,
and the criticality and reliability of the existing "work-horse" network will be accentuated. The importance
of efficiently supporting and maintaining your imbedded data-switching network, while you capitalize for your
IP-based network, will become even more critical.
The real irony of Lucent's most recent announcement is that the umbrella of protection provided by CBM and
Datatek has never been more safe and the cost of managing and maintaining your BNS/Datakit network less costly,
than it is today. In the months and years ahead, choosing to leverage your imbedded legacy investment, at
least temporarily, may not be a choice at all, but an economic reality.
The good news is, which ever direction our customers choose, they can be confident that CBM and Datatek will
continue to provide the data-switching products and the comprehensive support infrastructure that they will
need, and will rely upon, in order to quickly respond to the increasingly competitive and financially
challenging industry.
We would also like to encourage you to approach us, not only with your current IP migration questions
and concerns, but more importantly, with new "cutting-edge" technology ideas that can help you to
quickly respond to the data networking challenges of the future.
Thank you,
