Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Kim Miller (415) 336-7583
Corporate Press Relations
Eastman Kodak Company
Paul C. Allen (716) 724-5802
Corporate News Services
SUN MICROSYSTEMS AND KODAK SIGN
CUSTOMER SERVICE AGREEMENT
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. February 7, 1990. Sun Microsystems,
Inc., and Eastman Kodak Company today announced the signing of an
agreement under which Kodak's Customer Equipment Service Division
(CESD) will extend Sun's delivery of hardware-related customer service
in central and westem regions of the United States.
Operated under the Sun U.S. Customer Service "Strategic Partner
Program," the agreement will double the number of field engineers
available for on-site hardware maintenance calls for Sun equipment.
Sun will maintain complete responsibility for customer service
contracts, management of service calls, escalation of services and
technical service follow-up. Kodak's extensive customer service
organization will be utilized to provide Sun customers with expanded
support.
The Kodak CESD organization has more than 7500 field engineers
worldwide. These include persormel responsible for servicing Kodak
products used for electronic imaging and publishing, document
management, and document storage and output. Recognized as a provider
of quality service, CESD has been a winner of Datapro's highly
regarded service awards for the last nine years.
In addition, Kodak has extensive expertise with Sun products,
both as a user and as a system integrator. Kodak field engineers have
received full training for service on all Sun systems, including
training in UNIX, networking, maintenance and system administration.
"This innovative approach to providing quality customer service
is very consistent with Sun's business model," said Brenda Adams, vice
president of U.S. Customer Service at Sun. "By establishing
agreements with existing high-quality service organizations like
Kodak's, we are able to give our customers more universal coverage and
more responsive service, including remote locations that Sun could not
staff economically.
"This program allows Sun to quickly expand its geographic sales
and service coverage and provide better support to customers who have
chosen Sun's direct service channel," Adams noted.
The program was well received by Sun customers during a test
period prior to its formal launch. Faster customer response and repair
time are expected under the program because of expanded service
engineering resources and Kodak's extensive geographic coverage in the
Central and Westem United States. Sun plans to announce additional
strategic partnership agreements for other regions of the U.S. in
1990.
"With the sharp increase in integrated systems and multivendor
environments, agreements such as this will become common in the the
industry. Kodak looks forward to working with Sun in delivering the
highest-quality service to Sun customers," said Edward V. Ince, vice
president and general manager of Kodak's Customer Equipment Service
Division. "This is a win-win situation for all parties. Sun customers
are assured of responsive, professional service, Sun gains the support
of a highly qualified service organization without incurring an
additional fixed-cost infrastructure and Kodak enhances its service
revenues."
Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, N.Y. -- In addition to being
a major manufacturer of Photographic, Chemical, and Health Products --
is also a major supplier of Office Automation Products including
network-based document image management systems.
Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif.,
is a leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing
systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX
operating system and productivity software.
