Spanish insurer improves business performance with CA Unicenter deployment

Computer Associates International, Inc (CA) today announced that Direct Seguros, a leading insurance company based in Spain, has deployed CA`s acclaimed Unicenter infrastructure management solution to improve and automate critical IT operations. By doing so, the company has significantly enhanced its customer service capabilities while reducing its cost of technology ownership.

Direct Seguros is supported by a cutting-edge information infrastructure that enables extremely close relationships with its 220 000 customers and minimises operational overhead. Efficient management of its Web-based systems - which supported more than 2.5 million contacts last year - is particularly critical to ensuring the success of Direct Seguros in an increasingly competitive insurance market.

By deploying Unicenter, the company has created a full-function, state-of-the-art IT command centre that radically simplifies management of its complex, heterogeneous computing environment. Administrators can now monitor, troubleshoot and administer the company`s 30 servers and 400 workstations from a centralised console, thereby ensuring optimum system availability and performance - which, in turn, results in superior services to Direct Seguros` customers.

Key elements of the company`s deployment include:

* Unicenter Software Delivery, which enables technicians to automatically schedule, control and verify the successful completion of software updates on both desktop workstations and network servers.

* Unicenter Remote Control, which slashes the time and effort required to resolve system issues by enabling administrators to log on and test remote workstations from the company`s command centre.

* Unicenter Asset Management, which gives administrators a complete view of all software and hardware assets located throughout the enterprise. With this inventory information, Direct Seguros technicians can more effectively tend to the company`s business-critical devices.

"We are extremely satisfied with Unicenter," said Ra'ul Bravo, Direct Seguros` IT and Telecom Systems Director. "Thanks to the modular and highly scalable design of Unicenter, Direct Seguros has been able to optimise network operations and automate critical processes for improved business performance and better utilization of technical staff resources. By streamlining IT administration, Unicenter enables us to provide a higher level of service to our internal clients and to our increasingly value-conscious insurance customers."

With the support of CA partner Sistemas Inform'aticos Abiertos, Direct Seguros was able to complete its deployment of Unicenter in only two months.

"As business success becomes increasingly dependent on IT infrastructure, the effective, efficient management of that infrastructure is obviously becoming a key strategic consideration," said Leo Bensad'on, country manager, CA Spain. "As Direct Seguros has demonstrated, Unicenter is able to deliver the benefits associated with improved IT management very rapidly."