Recent Aquisitions in Network Equipment Manufacturing Heat Up Market, and Confirm Key Trends in Fanfare Industry Survey

Mountain View, California - December 20, 2006 - Key findings from a market study commissioned by The Fanfare Group are substantiated today with recent acquisitions in the highly competitive network equipment market. Ericsson's acquisition of Redback Networks points to increased competition in this market where success lies not only in achieving fastest time to market but also being able to deliver the highest quality products in record time.

"We are seeing the results of our recent study being played out with today's news," said David Gehringer, vice president of marketing at Fanfare. "Our research reveals the broad implications of increased market competition in terms of device quality, technical support and business costs. In the very competitive network equipment space, consisting of industry giants and eager startups, market share can be gained by turning quality into a competitive advantage."

Fanfare's data reveals that verification and quality assurance (QA) in today's networking equipment market can account for as much as 50 percent of a product's development cycle. With these increasingly complex network devices, the ability to automate the testing process not only speeds quality products to market, but frees up time to innovate on next generation features. Innovation and the ability to differentiate products is a key factor in maintaining industry leadership.

Fanfare's recently commissioned survey of more than 800 information technology professionals and consumer users on the topic of network equipment quality can be found on Fanfare's Web site at: http://www.fnfr.com/downloads/documentLibrary/index.aspx
This information provides insight to help companies continue to meet customer expectations, especially during acquisitions, to maintain satisfaction in product quality while still achieving time-to-market goals.

About The Fanfare Group

Fanfare is revolutionizing how high-tech equipment vendors manage product release cycles. By combining test development, execution, documentation, and automation into a single step, the company offers the first commercially-developed test automation software for validating the functionality of high-tech equipment. Using the FanfareSVT™ family of products, quality assurance teams improve customer satisfaction and reduce QA costs. Founded in 2004, Fanfare is a private company based in Mountain View, California, with venture backing from Matrix Partners and Redpoint Ventures. More information about the company and FanfareSVT can be found at www.fanfaregroup.com

Media Contact:

Marisa Marzano
Big Sky Communications
marisa@bigskypr.com
(705) 484-5105

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