DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2006--
Leasing Solution Helps Transform Major Travel Industry Data Operation
GE Capital Solutions, together with Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation and the global leader in enterprise data warehousing and analytics, recently announced the third major upgrade in five years for the critical, day-to-day data management operations of Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), the world's largest settlement system for the airline industry.
Headquartered in Virginia, ARC processes 45% of domestic air travel; a total of 190 million transactions per year, worth more than $70 billion. They are owned by 12 major domestic airlines and were established as a service operation, with limited assets and working capital. As the airline industry has come under increasing financial pressure, it has also become far more information-driven.
"We needed to substantially expand our data management capabilities," recalls Alfred Altschul, ARC's Vice President for Financial Services and CFO. "Data warehousing and data mining would help us cut costs, be more productive and provide new information offerings to customers, but it would also require a significant capital investment."
In 2000, as ARC identified Teradata's equipment and software as the best, most scalable solution, Teradata brought in NCR's long-time financing partner, GE Capital Solutions. Adds CFO Altschul, "The unique relationship between Teradata, NCR and GE was very beneficial. GE clearly wanted to make this deal work. They came back with a flexible, competitive financing proposal." With the leasing solution from GE, ARC was able to immediately acquire the Teradata solution - and has performed two major upgrades to faster, more powerful systems since then, at the same or lower cost.
"We never would have been able to do that if the first system was on our books," says Paul Romine, ARC's Vice President of Technology Services. "The overall benefits and cost savings these acquisitions have generated are enormous." According to Romine, the benefits include:
-- Substantial reduction in fraud losses, totaling millions of dollars per year over the past five years
-- Virtually 100% web-based reporting, eliminating tons of paper, dramatically reducing shipping costs and creating numerous internal operating efficiencies
-- A complete backup system, financed by cash flow ARC had previously been using to pay for costly backup and recovery insurance
-- More efficient utilization of data center space and lower operating costs
-- A wide range of innovative data products that help ARC's customers be more productive and efficient - and provide a significant new revenue stream for ARC
"This was the largest acquisition in our history," explains Altschul . "Yet we can fund it out of our daily operating budget. The Teradata data warehouse and analytics solutions have transformed the way we work, cut substantial costs, established a new profit center - and created major new efficiencies and productivity improvements. We never could have accomplished this without leasing and the partnership ARC has built with Teradata and GE."
Concludes GE's Steve Toeniskoetter, President & CEO of the Vendor Finance unit, "It is gratifying to see ARC realize the tremendous power of leasing in a technology environment. They will be able to upgrade every two or three years to faster, more powerful platforms, most likely at a lower monthly cost. This will keep them consistently at the forefront of data management technology and performance."
GE Capital Solutions (www.ge.com/capitalsolutions) provides leasing, lending and capital investment products and services to help business customers grow. It has over $90 billion in assets, serves more than a million clients around the world and is headquartered in Danbury, Connecticut, USA.
Teradata, (www.teradata.com) a division of NCR Corporation, is the global technology leader in enterprise data warehousing, analytic applications and data warehousing services. Organizations around the world rely on the power of Teradata's award-winning solutions to get a single, integrated view of their business to enhance decision-making, customer relationships and profitability.
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships with their customers. NCR's Teradata(R) data warehouses and ATMs, retail systems, self service solutions and IT services provide Relationship Technology(TM) that maximize the value of customer interactions and help organizations create a stronger competitive position. Based in Dayton, Ohio, NCR (www.ncr.com) employees approximately 28,400 people worldwide.
ARC (www.arccorp.com, an airline-owned company, is the premier provider of financial settlement solutions and data and analytical services for the travel industry. Airlines, travel agencies, corporate travel departments, railroads and other travel suppliers process more than $70 billion annually through ARC's world-class settlement system, making it the financial backbone of travel distribution.
Contacts
GE
Mark Tender, 203-749-2162
[email protected]
Stephen White