Cascade rolls out Continuis service

Cascade Communications opened a new umbrella for carrier services last week. Dubbed Continuis, the strategy will serve as the foundation for service-oriented programs such as technical support and network design.

The plan divides services into three business organizations: professional, educational and customer areas.

While announcing the strategy at the Users Forum in Waltham, Mass., last week, Cascade also rolled out the first Continuis products, including several tools for on-line support, network design and lab testing.

CaseView gives customers World Wide Web access to a database of solutions for common problems and information on Cascade products.

"It allows us to open up our knowledge base to our customers," said Gerry Boucher, Cascade director of customer service. "Our customers end up knowing what we know-anything we've learned over the years."

Cascade also enhanced its joint project with Wide Area Network Design Laboratory by adding a new module to the network planning and analysis tools. The tool set developed by WANDL now includes asynchronous transfer mode design capability for Cascade's CBX 500 ATM switch and frame relay design for the B-STDX 8000 and 9000 multiservice switches.

The third service announced last week is an expanded interoperability lab in which customers can simulate their networks.

"We recognized early on that you can't just be a product company," Boucher said. "In this business, you also have to have excellent service to succeed."