NetSolve Out-Tasks Frame Relay WAN Installation and Management for Corinthian SCHOOLS; Links Schools Throughout the States with ProWatch IV Internetwork Services.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 1996--NetSolve Incorporated, a leader in the WAN connectivity market, today announced that Corinthian Schools, Inc., has selected NetSolve to implement and manage their multiple-site frame relay wide area network, which carries vital management and administrative information.

NetSolve has completed WAN installation between 16 schools in seven states, with a further 24 schools planned for connection by the end of 1996.

Corinthian Schools operates a complete educational system throughout the United States. Course emphasis is on the allied health field for medical, dental, and optical studies. Additionally, Corinthian offers courses in electronics and general business. Most classes are 8- to 18-month courses granting either a certificate or diploma upon course completion.

The implementation of NetSolve's WAN services provides a comprehensive management information system for Corinthian. Under the terms of an agreement with the National Education Corporation (NEC), Corinthian had to have the 16 schools operational by Dec. 1, 1995, giving NetSolve just 30 days to complete installation.

"We have schools in nearly every local Bell company jurisdiction in the country," said Corinthian president David Moore. "NetSolve coordinated the communication effort between all the vendors, service providers, and each of our locations with very smooth, efficient results. Every aspect was managed by them virtually faultlessly. NetSolve took a Herculean task, made it manageable, and then completed it three days ahead of schedule."

The frame relay wide-area network at Corinthian consists of a Hewlett-Packard 9000 and four HP network servers at their headquarters located in Santa Ana, Calif., and an HP server with Microsoft Windows NT at each school. NetSolve uses frame relay transport technology from AT&T, and FRAD equipment from Motorola. NetSolve manages the entire WAN connectivity infrastructure, including the acquisition and installation of FRAD equipment, coordination with the RBOCs, and deployment of the frame relay wide-area transport. NetSolve's ProWatch IV service provides on-going network management from a production-proven 24-hour per day staffed Network Management Center.

FRADs are installed at both the Corinthian headquarters in Santa Ana and remote school locations, connecting legacy serial devices to the public frame relay service. In addition to reducing transmission costs, frame relay can also provide better reliability and performance than the typical multi-port leased lines in use at many companies. The combination of NetSolve and Motorola technology enables asynchronous traffic from terminals and printers to traverse a frame relay network.

NetSolve pro-actively manages network operations to optimize network performance and avoid downtime. The ProWatch IV network management service provides performance engineering, configuration management, fault management, and software and firmware version control.

"The ProWatch service allows us to take full advantage of frame relay technology without dedicating our in-house staff to network maintenance. We are able to fully leverage NetSolve's network management expertise while saving staff training and management costs," noted Moore.

Corinthian Schools was established in July 1995 when the NEC decided to sell its educational centers. Five individuals from the NEC purchased 16 NEC schools to form Corinthian Schools. Corinthian schools are dispersed across the United States: three in California, two in Michigan, one in Texas, one in Louisiana, one in Virginia, one in West Virginia, and one in Massachusetts. While the original NEC schools communicated via a time-shared IBM mainframe and a Sprint communications line, the group of principals who founded Corinthian elected to link the schools via a client/server WAN.

The frame relay WAN enables each school to share information using the School Automation System, an academic administration application developed by NEC. This application allows each school to track student enrollment, grades, attendance, courses, financial aid, placement, and other information that is strictly regulated by state governments.

Moore noted that Corinthian has the potential to grow its number of schools to more than 40 by the end of 1996. "We moved our Livonia, Mich., school to Southfield in January of 1996, and NetSolve managed the very smooth addition of this new location to the WAN network. Additionally, NetSolve went out of their way to help us re-establish our 1-800 line at the new Southfield school. As we continue to add new schools to our organization, it remains critical that our communications system remain as efficient and problem-free as we've seen thus far with NetSolve."

NetSolve Incorporated has been providing wide-area internetworking services and managing complex enterprise networks since 1988. Today, the company has more than 600 clients. The company's complete wide-area networking out-tasking service provides corporate customers with maximum network availability and reduced monthly operating costs. The company's products and services include sophisticated in-house systems management expertise, a 24-hour per day Network Management Center, a line of networking hardware and software products, and a range of wide-area services, including private line and frame relay. NetSolve is privately held and can be reached at 512/795-3000. -0-

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