Cegetel, France's second largest Internet service provider (ISP), provides a comprehensive range of innovative services to the French marketplace. Cegetel required a computing infrastructure that could scale to the growing needs of their business customers, while generating new, sustainable sources of revenue. As a leader in Europe's fast-growing telecommunications market, Cegetel, a part of the Vivendi Group, entered a technology partnership with Hewlett-Packard Company and Microsoft Corporation to architect a reliable computing infrastructure to provide its customers with high-level communications services.

International Data Corporation estimates that by 2002 European e-commerce will grow at an annual rate of 109 percent, while Web users grow at a rate of 38 percent per year. To accommodate this market demand, Cegetel needed to extend and upgrade its existing network to provide its customers with innovative services, SUCH AS · - a competitive differentiator.

"The services we provide are called value-added services not only for the number of 'automated' features they present, but also for the new 'biosphere' they introduce in a company," explains Oliver Counathe, Cegetel's marketing manager for the Intranet/Internet.

By leveraging Microsoft Commercial Internet System (MCIS 2.0), a comprehensive, integrated suite of server applications, HP was able to provide the IT infrastructure and consulting to allow Cegetel to design and deploy innovative Internet services, moving away from just providing bandwidth to its customers. The HP and Microsoft cooperative sales and marketing agreement provided Cegetel with the flexibility to seamlessly manage a wide array of vertical and horizontal applications.

Hosting value-added services such as database access and e-commerce, which needs more sophisticated server-based software than usual Web applications, Cegetel was able to achieve the migration from static to dynamic content. The solution HP and Microsoft provided allows Cegetel's customers to access, filter and deliver real-time database changes and business events to employees' desktops, saving considerable time and money.

"Hewlett-Packard recognized Cegetel's market demands and was able to provide innovative and reliable solutions to meet their customer's needs," said Jean-Louis Auger, Internet Business Development Manager at Hewlett-Packard. "Our alliance with Cegetel proves to be a strong one because our interests are in sync-we both want to exceed our customers' expectations."

Cegetel is one of the first French ISPs to enter a working relationship geared to bring together existing HP products and newly developed technologies. Cegetel believes its partnership with HP is essential to fuel fast growth and to devise solutions that will take direct aim at these critical business issues.

Today Cegetel's communications services are crucial to aiding its main business constituency - Europe's leading companies - to expand their business reach. By quickly developing and deploying value-added services to its business customers, Cegetel is harnessing technology as a competitive tool.