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.
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 EasyLink
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 EasyLink 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 EasyLink's 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, EasyLink moved quickly to get it up and running in July '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.
WHAT'S NEXT?
AT&T EasyLink staff are so happy with the COLD system, that they
have asked the administration to transfer all of the
company's old information on their system and throw out the microfiche.
(Case study information taken from November 1994 Imaging magazine
article entitled, "AT&T Gets Hot About COLD
And Saves $1 Million") and this success story courtesy of Feith
Systems.