3Com Launches Palm Training Alliance to Support Growing Enterprise Customer Base
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — January 19, 1999 — Palm Computing, Inc., a 3Com company (Nasdaq:COMS), today announced the Palm(TM) Training Alliance, a program that provides world-class training solutions for corporations implementing Palm Computing(R) platform solutions at the enterprise level. Through the program, 3Com will work with qualified training vendors to provide enterprise customers with easy access to high-quality training vendors, courses and materials.
With an increasing number of corporations integrating Palm Computing platform-based handheld solutions into their information infrastructure, there is a growing need for employee training on how to use Palm Computing organizers optimally in conjunction with enterprise applications. The Palm Training Alliance is one of several initiatives designed to enable seamless integration between Palm Computing platform devices and enterprise information systems.
Authorized Palm Training Alliance members will receive regular communication and/or hands-on platform training from 3Com, training materials and a dedicated Web site section. Premier Palm Training Alliance vendors will join corporate sales teams from 3Com and its OEM and licensing partners such as IBM, QUALCOMM and Symbol Technologies, to support training, deployment and technology integration efforts at enterprise customer sites.
"As a premier training partner for the Palm Computing platform, we're translating the world's favorite handheld organizer into a meaningful time and life management solution," said Stephen M. R. Covey, president of the training and education business at Franklin Covey. "By teaching employees of large corporations to integrate our principles with a Palm organizer, we're able to help them dramatically improve their effectiveness."
"The Palm Computing platform is the number one handheld platform in the world because of its simplicity and ease of use," said Pat McVeigh, vice president of sales for Palm Computing. "The Palm Training Alliance program is designed to give customers access to top-notch training solutions for the platform, bringing that same simplicity to Palm Computing devices when integrated with enterprise applications."
In a separate release today, Franklin Covey and 3Com announced they will deliver corporate training courses based on the industry-leading Palm Computing platform and Franklin Covey's popular time and life planning concepts. As the first premiere Palm Training Alliance participant, Franklin Covey will offer new enterprise-focused training courses which include the company's popular time and life planning concepts as well as training on other key enterprise applications using a Palm device as the primary planning tool. The companies will jointly market the new training programs to their respective customer bases.
About the Palm Computing Platform
The Palm Computing platform is the foundation for the market-leading 3Com Palm III(TM) and PalmPilot(TM) connected organizers and other handheld computing products from Palm Computing's strategic partners, all leaders in their respective markets. These include IBM, which sells the IBM WorkPad PC Companion into the enterprise market, Franklin Covey, which supplies Palm devices for both the consumer and enterprise markets based on their popular time and life management planning concepts, QUALCOMM, which will sell its pdQ CDMA Digital Smartphone in 1999, and Symbol Technologies, which develops and markets the SPT 1500 device with bar code scanning capabilities used in retail, transportation, parcel and postal delivery, manufacturing and health care.
About 3Com
With more than 200 million customers worldwide, 3Com Corporation connects more people to information in more ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers innovative information access products and network system solutions to large, medium and small enterprises; carriers and network service providers; PC OEMs; and consumers. 3Com – More connected(TM). For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the Palm Computing site at www.palm.com.
Note to Editors: 3Com and Palm Computing are registered trademarks, and Palm, PalmPilot, Palm III and More connected are trademarks, of 3Com Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. No products mentioned herein are manufactured by Pilot Corporation or Pilot Corporation of America, manufacturers and distributors of writing instruments.
CONTACT:
A&R Partners
Amy Nemechek, 650/363-0982 ext. 3930
anemechek@arpartners.com
or
3Com Corporation
Elizabeth Cardinale, 408/326-9390
Elizabeth_Cardinale@3Com.com