Consulting Firm Builds Commercial ISP Business Using RAServers.

SALEM, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 1998--RAScom, Inc. today announced that Solution Partners Group, Ltd. (SPG) has standardized on RAServers for corporate Internet access servers. SPG (http://www.solutionpartners.com/) started off by providing analog modem access on a RAServer 2124 from RAScom. The firm provisioned a T1 circuit from the telco, and allowed local companies to access the Internet. The customer base is primarily small and mid-size businesses throughout Colorado.

SPG was founded in July 1995 in Englewood, Colorado as a consulting firm focused in systems and network integration. Larry Burton, president of SPG, said, "We find there is a great deal of synergy between corporate ISP services and traditional consulting services. Customers now often begin as a consulting client and evolve into an ISP client. We can provide high-quality, custom services that are specially tailored for each corporate customer's business requirements. RAServers simplify remote access and allow us to apply our Windows expertise so we can compete with the big boys by offering Internet services tailored for each corporate account."

As SPG began considering offering Internet services, Burton went to the Rocky Mountain Windows NT Users Group to research whether the firm could deploy Internet services using Windows NT. "We're not only a Windows shop, we're also a Microsoft Certified Solutions Provider," said Burton. "We didn't want to select a proprietary solution from Ascend or Shiva, but instead wanted servers we could manage ourselves without learning new operating systems. We also didn't want to get locked into an architecture that would restrict us from offering new services to our customers."

SPG quickly discounted building a board-level solution. "The component level products are not yet mature, and they require too much integration for an ISP to practically deploy business services," said Burton. "We decided we wanted a complete system solution that would allow us to lower our Total Cost of Ownership while maintaining the flexibility to upgrade to support more subscribers or new services. We also wanted a single source of support for the entire system so we could focus our engineering resources on supporting our customers, not on supporting our own infrastructure. RAScom was a nice fit for our needs, and we decided to standardize on RAServers."

SPG installed the RAServer in a couple of hours and began offering corporate ISP services. "Installation was flawless--it just doesn't get any easier," said Burton. "We just set the box down, plugged in the cables, turned the system on, and followed the Windows wizard as it imported our subscriber account information from our Windows NT primary domain controller."

SPG is planning to deploy additional RAServers at its Point of Presence (POP). "We will double capacity by adding another T1 interface and 24 digital modems to the RAServer 2100 shortly, and after that we will probably deploy a RAServer 2600 so we can scale up to 4 T1s and offer our customers high-availability services," said Burton.

The RAServer requires little maintenance, and SPG has become a RAScom master reseller and is offering RAServers to its corporate customers for remote access. "We're very pleased with the flexibility, reliability, and simplicity of the RAScom solution," said Burton. "RAScom offers a rock-solid, integrated remote access server that allows ISPs to evolve services to meet customer requirements--without extensive investments in training and management."

About RAScom

RAScom is the pioneer in the swiftly growing market for remote access server technology based on PC architectures and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows NT Server operating system and a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider. RAScom's innovative remote access server technology continues to be recognized in the industry with major awards. RAScom won the Editor's Choice for Windows NT-Based Remote Access Servers award from Network Computing Magazine; Easiest to Use Remote Access Server award from Business Communications Review Magazine, and the Networks As Advertised award from Mier Communications. In the Mier Communications study, the independent testing firm found that RAServers provide nearly double the dial-up throughput of proprietary remote access servers from Ascend Communications (NASDAQ:ASND) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO).

RAScom, Inc. is based in Salem, New Hampshire with a European subsidiary based in Germany. RAScom, recently named one of the "Hot 100 Small Businesses in the Country" by Entrepreneur Magazine, provides the wide area network interfaces, communications software, and integration services that allow enterprise networks and ISPs to implement high-performance, secure, flexible, and scalable remote access solutions. For more information on RAScom or its products, call the company at [phone], or visit the company's World Wide Web site at www.rascom.com.