Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) has announced that Nextel Communications Inc. (Nextel), a leading provider of wireless communications services, has dramatically improved the response time of certain customer billing system transactions from minutes to seconds by implementing a database solution based on CA`s Ingres II.
Serving 98 of the top 100 U.S. markets with wireless communications networks and services, Nextel has built the largest all-digital wireless network in the United States. As of June 30, Nextel has increased its customer base to more than five million global digital subscribers. The national network has handled more than eight million Internet text messages each quarter since introducing Internet messaging.
"Without a doubt, Ingres II is core to our ability to provide effective billing and customer care support," said Dick LeFave, senior vice president and chief information officer of Nextel. Nextel is enabling its accounts payable and customer care employees to quickly access customer-billing information from a database of more than five million subscribers.
As its customer base has grown, Nextel`s system has experienced pressure on system availability and response time. Nextel`s Care Centre operations rely on the billing database and need to have systems that are optimised for maximum customer care. "Fast growth, such as Nextel`s, stresses development of eBusiness infrastructures," said LeFave. "We needed to upgrade our infrastructure to handle greater volumes."
LeFave gives full credit to Ingres II for enhanced performance. "Ingres has improved efficiencies in our billing cycle and has delivered solid performance to our customer care representatives," he said. He estimates that system performance on key transactions has improved by more than 50 percent after the installation of Ingres II.
"Some transactions that previously took anywhere between 30 seconds to 60 seconds are now completed in the sub-second range," LeFave calculated.
The significant performance enhancement in the system is enabling Nextel`s representatives to respond more quickly to an even higher volume of customers. "By using Ingres, our customer care reps now access up-to-the-minute billing information at a sub-second transactions rate," said LeFave.
"CA is working with Nextel to provide additional systems performance improvements and to re-engineer business processes throughout the company," he added. "The move to Ingres II helped Nextel avoid a lot of infrastructure upgrades, while helping the company focus on new development and streamlining operations. This project has certainly enhanced the way we do business. "
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Computer Associates International
Computer Associates International, Inc, the world`s leading business software company, delivers the end-to-end infrastructure to enable eBusiness through innovative technology, services and education. CA has 20,000 employees worldwide and had revenue in excess of $6 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000. For more information, visit www.ca.com.
Nextel Communications Inc.
Nextel Communications Inc., headquartered in Reston, Va., is a leading provider of fully integrated wireless communications services and has built the largest guaranteed all-digital wireless network in the United States that covers thousands of communities across the United States. Nextel and Nextel Partners Inc. currently serve 98 of the top 100 U.S. markets. The Nextel National Network offers a fully integrated wireless communications tool with digital cellular, text/numeric paging, wireless Internet services and Nextel Direct Connect(R) - a digital two-way radio feature. In addition, through Nextel International Inc., Nextel has wireless operations and investments in Canada, Chili, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines, Peru, and Japan. Please visit Nextel ` s Web page at http://www.nextel.com.