BEDMINSTER, N.J. and SAN JOSE, Calif. -- In a significant expansion of their long-standing strategic relationship, AT&T (NYSE: T - News) and Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - News) today announced they have aligned their marketing and sales forces to enhance delivery of AT&T's leading portfolio of global managed services that utilize Cisco technology and together will collaborate to advance product and technology planning. The agreement initially concentrates on serving U.S. business customers as well as U.S.-based multi-national customers needing global managed services. "The combination of network reach, number of managed services, size of combined sales forces and strong market positions of AT&T and Cisco make this agreement potentially one of the broadest in the industry," said Michael Haines, principal analyst for information technology services business strategies at Gartner Inc., a leading industry research and consulting firm. "As the information technology industry rapidly moves toward the adoption of converged networks, it is imperative that network hardware manufacturers and service providers collaborate to deliver complete solutions that address customers' needs." As part of the agreement, the Cisco sales organization and its extensive indirect sales channel will join in the delivery of AT&T managed services that support business operations and mission-critical applications. Customers will benefit from the breadth of the services available, which initially include 17 AT&T end-to-end managed services in the areas of Internet-protocol virtual private network (IP VPN) services, IP network security services, metro optical and Ethernet services, managed router services, managed hosting services and voice/data integrated-access services. More services will be added. "This agreement takes full advantage of the strengths of Cisco and AT&T to take networking technology and deployment of secure and mission-critical services to the next level," said Ken Sichau, president of AT&T Business Sales. "Our deepened relationship will make it easier for customers to choose AT&T and Cisco because we'll approach customers together with a far more comprehensive set of proven solutions." Cisco Systems Inc. AT&T Corp.