AT&T Adds Wyse Hardware To Hosted Services

AT&T on Tuesday said it has started reselling thin-client hardware from Wyse Technology.

The deal enables San Antonio-based AT&T to bundle Wyse thin-client and display terminal products into sales of its hosted Internet services, said Art Gough, general manager of the carrier’s business services.

The ability to add end-point hardware on the same invoice as Internet services will extend AT&T’s reach into the LAN by taking the carrier's offerings all the way to the management of desktop devices, according to Gough. "The one [Internet] service we didn't have was the actual thin-client device," he said. "[The Wyse deal] allows us to bundle a consistent and holistic solution for customers."

AT&T plans to target accounts traditionally keen to thin-client computing, including vertical markets such as health care, retail, financial services and government, Gough said. Sales of Wyse products will be driven primarily by AT&T's professional services organization, he said.

The AT&T-Wyse deal doesn’t include any incentives for Wyse partners to bundle AT&T services with sales of Wyse products, said Tarkan Maner, senior vice president of global marketing and sales at San Jose, Calif.-based Wyse. The reselling agreement will increase profits for Wyse and give the thin-client vendor a greater global reach, but it won’t conflict with the channel sales efforts of Wyse solution providers, Maner noted.

Coast Solutions Group potentially could find itself competing with AT&T in vertical markets where it sells packages similar to what AT&T plans to offer under the Wyse deal: thin-client-based networks in retail and health-care verticals, said Paul Freeman, president of the Irvine, Calif.-based IT consultancy and solution provider.

But Freeman said he doesn’t see a threat from AT&T in desktop management of thin clients. Though AT&T has been a direct competitor with solution providers in sales of IP telecommunication-related hardware--such as products from Cisco Systems--a move by the carrier to extend that competition to the desktop "is going to be a challenge to their credibility," he added. "There is a fundamental difference between providing circuits and providing client support," Freeman said.

A broadline solution provider can offer a wider variety of options, be they thin clients or fully loaded PCs, according to Freeman. When it comes to a soup-to-nuts offering from AT&T, "if you aligned yourself with a single vendor, you have limited choices," he said.

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