Intel to Create European E-Business Solutions Centers

Intel Corp. announced
Friday its intention to open several e-business solutions centers
in Europe, beginning with England, Sweden, and Germany, and later
adding others in France and the Netherlands.

Intel also announced that seven European companies have joined its
e-Business Solution Provider Program, giving them access to the
new centers and other support services. They are AGENCY.COM and
iXL in the U.K; Icon Medialab Europe; DDB Interactive and Matra
Grolier Network, France; Connecta/Information Highway, Scandinavia,
and Actis Systems, Russia.

Robert Eckelmann, vice-president and general manager, Intel EMEA,
said the market today demanded robust e-business solutions and
rapid deployment cycles — and the new Intel “e-BSCs” would help
meet the demand.

“By extracting and documenting best known methods for the development
of solutions on Intel Architecture, the e-Business Solution Centers
will be able to significantly speed up time-to-market for customers
deploying solutions on IA,” said Eckelmann.

At the new centers, software developers, Internet solution providers,
and dot-com companies will be able to carry out comparative benchmarking,
as well as validate, load test and deploy applications and solutions.

Speaking in support of the project, Mike Lawrie, general manager, IBM EMEA,
said the new centers — and others set up by IBM — will allow established
and new companies in Europe to evaluate the technologies for real e-business
deployment.

Other support came from Compaq, where VP Patrick Lelorieux of Compaq EMEA’s
Industry-Standard Server Business Division, said his company was
working with Intel to complement its existing competence center offerings.
The Intel e-BSCs would enable companies to speed up their e-business time
to market for solutions based on Compaq and Intel architecture, he said.