SYSTEMS & SOFTWARE, INC.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS - Accounts Receivable

AT&T EasyLink is a global provider of communication services such as electronic mail, networked-based fax services, electronic data interchange, telex, personal link services and information services to more than 160 countries.

When AT&T EasyLink took over Western Union's electronic mail and telex services, they found themselves with another billing center that used a completely different accounting system from their own.

Note: EasyLink Services is now its own entity and no longer under the control of AT&T.

Problem

AT&T EasyLink took this opportunity to evaluate how information was being handled within its company. Most of the information was stored on COM (Computer Output to Microfiche) and Easy Commerce thought there was room for improvement.

1. Processing delays: Information was sent to the bureau nightly for processing which took from 2-7 days to be returned. The delays would get worse as information needs expanded and new offices were opened.
2. Costs: Offices in Virginia, New Jersey, Georgia and Missouri had to be sent copies of the fiche. Depending on the information stored on each fiche, up to 12 copies of each could be required.
3. Customer service delays: When a customer called to query billing information, it always required a return phone call by an Easy Commerce representative, because the representative would have to locate the fiche and then call the customer back. This often resulted in a long game of telephone tag.
4. Misfiled fiche: It was not uncommon for delays to occur because the fiche had been misfiled or was being used by another person.
5. Scattered information: Large files could be stored across several different fiche.

Selection Criteria

MIS director Robert Conaway decided to look at what equipment was available. He needed more than a COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk) system, because he was going to integrate all of AT&T EasyLink's information storage.

He was only interested in systems that combined imaging and COLD. He believed that the efficiency of the company would be increased even further if they had the capability of attaching letters and faxes to the COLD documents.

Conaway shopped for his solution at Imaging Expo '93. The requirement that the system have imaging capabilities reduced the potential number of vendors to 12. By the end of the day he had narrowed it down to six.

Solution

The vendor of choice was Feith Systems and Software. Not only did Feith have a COLD solution which was integrated with its imaging system, Feith Document Database (FDD), but Feith also listened to AT&T EasyLink's requirements and were willing to build and support a system that met their needs. Feith Systems saw it as a partnership and was willing to make a long-term commitment to EasyLink. According to Conaway, some of the other vendors saw it simply as another sales call.

AT&T EasyLink's needs were complex, mainly because of the sheer amount of data that needed to be stored and processed. Bills and invoices often go into hundreds of pages.

After deciding to buy an integrated imaging & COLD system, Easy Commerce moved quickly to get it up and running in '94.

AT&T EasyLink runs a number of different computers -- IBM MVS, DEC and Hewlett-Packard. The COLD system needed to work transparently with all of these.

The company wanted the COLD system to run independently of its mainframes, so it chose a UNIX-based system. The COLD system consists of a 200GB jukebox with 5 1/4" discs, a 14GB magnetic disk farm consisting of seven drives and an NCR 3150 server to replace the microfiche installation.

Most billing inquiries occur in the first 90 days and for this reason three months of billing information is kept on magnetic disk. It's then migrated to an optical jukebox for two years.

Information stored on the system includes all billing information such as customer invoices, financial reports, billing control reports, some customer database information, and all other paper-based reports.

The Feith Document Database is accessed by 50 concurrent users in Atlanta, with data center operations in Virginia and corporate offices in New Jersey.

Payoff

After just three months of putting its information storage online, AT&T EasyLink not only improved customer service, increased efficiency and lifted employee morale, but found an easy way to save $1 million over five years. What's more, payback from investment in FDD was expected to take less than 12 months.

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