Houston, Tex. and Mansfield, Mass. - Feb. 2, 2004 - NextiraOne, LLC North America and Vanguard Managed Solutions, LLC (VanguardMS), have joined forces to create a strategic alliance designed to benefit the customers of both companies, which are owned by Platinum Equity, a Los Angeles-based global acquisition and operations firm.

By marshalling their resources and offering joint solutions to customers that utilize the broad expertise of both businesses, the two companies will have an opportunity to provide data, voice, and converged managed network solutions to a customer footprint that reaches many corners of the world.

This alliance will create the ability to serve a combined customer base of more than 500,000 sites. By virtue of this alliance, NextiraOne and VanguardMS will be able to offer a more comprehensive array of services, and customers will see broader integrated solutions opportunities from one of the largest independent converged communications solutions companies and a leading managed network solutions provider.

VanguardMS has established itself as a leader in customized managed network services and complementary networking products, with over forty years experience. NextiraOne also has a long heritage of providing advanced communications solutions, including network management, to its customers.

"This combination of resources allows NextiraOne and VanguardMS to provide a wide-ranging suite of products. Our customers also benefit from an even more comprehensive level of service through our advanced Network Operations Centers," commented Michael Ruley, president and CEO of NextiraOne. "NextiraOne's expertise in managing voice and data networks for enterprise customers will be enhanced by the experience and capabilities that the VanguardMS solutions bring to the marketplace. The net impact is greater value for our customers."

Rick Lane, president and CEO of VanguardMS added, "We are excited about the opportunity to offer our customers access to NextiraOne's expertise, as well as supplement NextiraOne's offerings to their customers with our strength in customized managed voice, video, and data networking solutions. The combination of VanguardMS and NextiraOne products, services, solutions, and value-added expertise clearly demonstrates a compelling value proposition for customers."

About NextiraOne
Headquartered in Houston and Paris, NextiraOne is a client-focused provider of communications solutions and managed services. With nearly $2 billion in revenues and over 9,000 employees worldwide, NextiraOne plans, implements and manages voice, data and converged communications solutions for enterprise and general business clients. NextiraOne offers an extensive portfolio of technical and product expertise, including focus on key client segments, and provides best-in-class technologies from strategic partners. For more information, please visit www.NextiraOne.com. NextiraOne is owned by Platinum Equity (www.platinumequity.com), a global acquisition firm specializing in the strategic operation of mission-critical services and solutions businesses according to a unique M&A&O^SM model of value creation.

About Vanguard Managed Solutions
Vanguard Managed Solutions (www.vanguardms.com) is a leading provider of managed network solutions. Leveraging its leadership and expertise in voice, video, and data over a broad range of multi-service technologies, VanguardMS helps organizations get the maximum value from their IT infrastructure through fully customized, industry-specific, end-to-end solutions that support their business's networking needs.

VanguardMS offers a full range of services addressing the network's entire lifecycle to customers worldwide. This range of services, along with the award-winning Vanguard multi-service IP access router series, is the basis for complete, custom, scalable solutions that enhance productivity, while cutting costs. VanguardMS takes care of your network so you can take care of your business. Vanguard Managed Solutions is owned by Platinum Equity (www.platinumequity.com), a global acquisition firm specializing in the strategic operation of mission-critical services and solutions businesses according to a unique M&A&O^SM model of value creation.

Contact:

For NextiraOne:
Shannon Sullivan
M/C/C Communications
972-480-8383
shannon_sullivan@mccom.com

For VanguardMS:
Lorita Ba
Horn Group, Inc.
781-356-7145
lba@horngroup.com