CHANNEL NEWS

Bitco Enterprises Inc. of Ashburn, Va., an information technology solutions provider to value-added resellers as well as public- and private-sector integrators worldwide, has signed another network storage systems distribution agreement with Maxtor Corp., Milpitas, Calif.

Under the terms of this agreement, Bitco Enterprises' subsidiary, Decision Support Systems, also based in Ashburn, will distribute Maxtor's MaxAttach network attached storage systems to its channel partners.

"Maxtor is a market leader in providing premium-quality storage solutions," said Shaf Mohebbi, executive vice president of worldwide marketing at Bitco Enterprises. "We are happy to expand the depth and breadth of our offerings to the channel by adding these innovative network storage systems to our product line."

DSS, an IT solutions distributor that operates as an independent subsidiary of its parent, Bitco Enterprises, offers a broad product selection of top information technology manufacturers ranging from printing to imaging equipment to storage solutions and complete systems.

"Bitco Enterprises is widely recognized as a leading distributor, focused on providing increasingly sophisticated 'channel-ready' products to the government integrator and reseller market," said Bob Grewal, director of channel sales for Maxtor's MaxAttach family of network storage systems.

"On the heels of our DiamondMax distribution pact with Bitco, this agreement serves as an important component to expanding the depth of our product offerings in the public-sector IT marketplace," Grewal said.

The MaxAttach family is compatible with Linux/Unix clients and can be monitored remotely through simple network management protocol. All MaxAttach systems provide network status reporting, automatic e-mail alerts, RAID 1 mirroring for data protection and intuitive graphical user interfaces that allow for sharable storage on the network with three simple steps to install and four mouse clicks to configure. CACI International Inc., Arlington, Va., has formed an alliance with Ringtail Solutions Inc., an Australian-based software developer of litigation support and knowledge management, Web-enabled technology solutions.

With this pact, CACI plans to offer an expanded, Web-enabled tool set to federal, state and local customers as well as commercial clients, to diversify and strengthen its legal line of business. The system integrator's document imaging software, ADIIS, is in use at government and commercial organizations worldwide.

The CACI-Ringtail solution set includes the Ringtail CaseBook, which uses Internet data warehousing to organize case files for court preparation, and Ringtail CourtBook, which lets courtroom participants access case materials quickly and easily, link to related Web sites, engage multimedia programs for evidence presentation and view witness testimony from remote locations. CACI will also offer Ringtail ASP (applications solutions provider), a full outsourcing service for case management activities.

"The time is right for innovative technology to be implemented to support mission-critical new service benefits for law firms, corporations, government agencies and courts," said Eddie O'Brien, Ringtail Solutions' president and chief executive officer.

"Litigation support is a core competency of CACI's document technology line of business and we continually look for ways to sustain our leadership in this area," said Ken Johnson, president of CACI.