EarthLink Business Launches EarthLink TechCare

ATLANTA, June 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK), a leading IT services and communications provider, today announced the launch of EarthLink TechCare, the next in its series of innovative IT Services business solutions. EarthLink TechCare is a fully managed outsourced help desk that is customizable and scalable, enabling customers to relieve their overburdened IT staffs and refocus on more strategic initiatives.

With EarthLink TechCare, experts build a customized offering fully integrated into the customer's IT environment. EarthLink's North America-based, certified professionals resolve end-user technology challenges by answering live calls rapidly, and provide a knowledgeable and courteous experience for the client's users. EarthLink TechCare can help businesses define thresholds for escalations and create a ticketing and reporting system to meet exact needs.

"Following our  May launch of Cloud Workspace, a hosted desktop and virtualization application service, EarthLink TechCare further empowers our clients to achieve their business objectives by expanding their IT capabilities without adding IT staff," said Michael Toplisek, Executive Vice President of IT Services for EarthLink. "Many businesses today spend a high percentage of their IT resources on routine maintenance and support activities.  EarthLink TechCare provides the help desk functionality to keep internal users productive without consuming internal IT resources. This solution can significantly reduce the cost of providing help desk support compared to an in-house service, and enables IT staff to focus on more strategic revenue generating initiatives."

EarthLink TechCare is a feature-rich service that enables clients to select from a menu of components or add unique support elements as needed. These include: support of any end-user device, VIP support levels, online reporting tools, trouble ticketing system, 24/7 or 9/5 options, client satisfaction reports and ITIL best practices. EarthLink documents the business IT environment (networks, devices, printers, partners, applications, peripherals, VIPs) and helps define escalation thresholds and processes for third party vendors, and ensure a seamless handoff for end-users.

"Businesses are under continual pressure to do more with the same budgets, and often lack the resources to keep up with the increased complexity and risk in the IT world. Outsourcing help desk functions has long been seen as a viable target for strategically distributing budget while potentially improving productivity and end user response times," remarked Carl Brooks,  infrastructure and cloud computing analyst, Tier1 Research, a division of 451 Research. "Providers that offer a professional, scalable solution are in a good position to attract customers that are feeling the pinch around IT staffing levels but still want to try and streamline rote support functions."

EarthLink TechCare features a web-based customer portal with access to the historical record of all logged calls and ACD (Automated Call Distribution) statistics that measure performance based on average call length, average speed of answer and number/percentage of calls answered. Current EarthLink service level metrics indicate 70% of calls reach a live person in less than 30 seconds; on average calls reach a live person in less than 60 seconds and 70% of issues are resolved and closed on the first call.

Implemented by EarthLink internally to support the sales organization, EarthLink TechCare provides the real-time support and rapid resolution that has greatly improved productivity and effectiveness.

The IT Services product suite is also available for customer management via the myLink™ customer portal using a centralized IT Services Center dashboard.

More information on EarthLink Business IT Services is available by calling 1-800-957-4872 or visiting www.earthlinkbusiness.com.

About EarthLink
EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) is a leading IT services and communications provider to more than 150,000 businesses and one million consumers nationwide. EarthLink empowers customers with managed services including cloud computing, managed and private cloud, and virtualization services such as managed hosting and cloud workspace. EarthLink also offers a robust portfolio of IT security, application hosting, colocation and IT support services. The company operates an extensive network spanning 28,800 route fiber miles with 90 metro fiber rings and 4 secure data centers providing ubiquitous nationwide data and voice IP service coverage across more than 90 percent of the country. Founded in 1994, EarthLink's award-winning reputation for outstanding service and product innovation is supported by an experienced team of professionals focused on best-in-class customer care.  For more information, visit EarthLink's website at www.earthlink.net.

SOURCE EarthLink, Inc.