At CeBIT 2004, Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), a leading global provider of innovative network solutions, today announced that it is expanding its reach for engineer dispatch (first line maintenance) and enterprise product deployment services. In conjunction, Ciena announced a strategic partnership with NCR Corporation, a leading provider of networking deployment and support services, which will extend the geographic reach of Ciena’s service offerings, effective immediately.

Through its partnership with NCR, Ciena is able to expand its offerings to customers requiring engineer dispatch and on-site resolution, as well as test and turn-up services for enterprise solutions, in more than 120 countries and territories. NCR’s support will help Ciena’s customers realize increased geographic scope, improved economies of scale, and an enhanced breadth of Ciena product support as the company’s solutions portfolio continues to expand toward the network edge. The addition of NCR’s broad range of resources further enhances Ciena’s ability to meet even the most aggressive service level commitments and customized service requests.

"One of Ciena’s principal differentiators in the marketplace is its high level of responsiveness to the always-evolving needs of our customers, so identifying the right partners for growing our service portfolio is critical," said Arthur Smith, Ciena’s senior vice president of global operations. "The NCR team has proven its technical acumen and customer focus in multiple international projects for Ciena as well as recent edge solution deployments for our enterprise customers.

"We have chosen a highly respected name in the network support industry as a strategic services partner," Smith continued. "NCR is recognized as a leader in providing the highest levels of engineering knowledge and expertise, allowing our customers to be confident that they can continue to leverage a best-in-class service infrastructure. Together, we look forward to providing as much business value to our customers as possible."

"We understand the importance of flexibility and response to Ciena’s customers," said Todd Bollenbacher, vice president of Americas Customer Services at NCR. "The combination of Ciena’s innovative network solutions and NCR’s long record of success in services expands the offerings of both organizations. As a result, Ciena customers will benefit from an enhanced services portfolio with the world-class support they’ve come to expect."

Over the past year, Ciena has been augmenting its services business, complementing the internal structure, and completing an exhaustive evaluation process to select global services partners. Now, by providing engineer dispatch and edge solution deployment services through its partnership with NCR, Ciena is able to increase the level of support it offers its customers on a global scale.