Wired for a hot deal.

Washington Cable lands $100 million contract with AT&T

Doubling sales for three years straight is quite a feat for any company. But Washington Cable Supply (WCS) isn't done just yet. The Lanham, Maryland, company recently announced signing two one-year contracts with AT&T totaling overS100 million. The company, owned by the husband and wife team of William H. and Beverly Parker, will handle the material management of the SONET fiber optic network equipment. They'll be responsible for cutting and coiling millions of feet of power cable for installation at AT&T's central offices nationwide.

"Working with a global leader like AT&T can only help us as we make the transition to the next level as an African American enterprise," says Bill Parker, president and CEO of WCS. "It will allow us to upgrade our technical skills and create funds we can allocate to grow our business. It will also allow us to look at merger and acquisition opportunities by expanding the services that we offer."

At the heart of the deal is Lucent Technologies, supplier of the materials WCS will handle for AT&T. Lucent played matchmaker between WCS and its communications cousin, AT&T.

WCS is the first company to sign a joint marketing agreement in Lucent's Business Solution Provider alliance, initiated in 1999. Lucent searched for minority- and women-owned business enterprises with the financing, technical and electronic commerce capabilities to become Lucent value-added resellers. Fourteen firms, seven of them African American, were identified as candidates.

"We chose Washington Cable primarily because of a longstanding relationship with them," says Alphonso Hamilton, vice president of diversity marketing with Lucent. "They perform the type of value-added services that we were looking for. They have a proven track record of performance, quality and synergy with Lucent." Business Solution Provider allies are allowed to carry the Lucent logo. The BSP pact has no commercial component until a third-party opportunity is consummated. Then a Lucent-MWBE (Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise) value-added reseller agreement is forged, specifying product, customer and price.

With this deal, Washington Cable becomes one of AT&T's larger dollar-volume MWBE contractors. AT&T spent $440 million with minorities and another $450 million with women-owned enterprises during 1998. The communications giant spent $5 billion with MWBE firms during the past five years and over $10 billion since 1968.