AT&T gives Dick's more bone

August 31, 2005

No, this is not the subject line of your morning spam. But now that you're here, the blog offers this real business-related news:

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AT&T announced today that, under terms of a new contract agreement, it will upgrade Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc.’s services supporting 239 locations, enabling access to AT&T’s high-speed backbone and providing support for the retailer’s network applications.

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AT&T’s $1.2 million contract from Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. puts in motion the agreed terms of the major voice-and-data-communications company to provide an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) that will integrate all retail stores, corporate offices and distribution centers across the United States. The athletics retailer primarily operates throughout the Eastern half of the U.S.

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Through the secure AT&T BusinessDirect portal, Pittsburgh-based Dick's Sporting Goods has around-the-clock online access to real-time reports on network performance, as well as direct connection to electronic billing and trouble management systems. AT&T BusinessDirect combines service management and support reporting tools into a single, secure extranet site. It provides users with increased visibility and cost control over their network performance and investments, and it supports an average of 2.7 million transactions per month from more than 620,000 users. It was also recently recognized by the Yankee Group for providing customers with “the strongest online support and service experience in the industry.”

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With the recent acquisition of Galyan’s Trading Co. Inc., Dick's Sporting Goods has locations in 34 states and $2.1 billion in sales in 2004.

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DRB