ISI in the News

Please contact Charles Ruykhaver for more information about this press release.

SCHAUMBURG, IL - In 1998, confronted with a telemanagement system that was not Y2K-compliant, Irene Trainor had an important choice to make. A telecommunications manager at Allied Van Lines, she would either have to upgrade her system using the current vendor?s software or select an entirely different alternative. After determining Allied needed the most robust telemanagement solution on the market, the decision became easy. She chose Infortel®-NT, designed by ISI of Schaumburg, Illinois.

Infortel-NT utilizes its Strategic Reporting Engine 2.0 to provide instant access to call accounting data. Data can be presented by printed report, on-screen client/server inquiry, email reports or World Wide Web queries. The current release permits report formatting to be user defined, including a graphical reporting option that uses the charting capabilities of Microsoft Excel. With the Mail Merge Reporting feature, departmental reports are easy to create and distribute automatically via e-mail or a network printer.

Infortel-NT is characterized by exceptional processing speed and the ability to charge back costs to Allied's internal departments with a degree of accuracy down to the penny.

"The greatest effect Infortel-NT has on our business is its ability to provide the information we need quickly in an easy-to-interpret format," says Trainor. "The system breaks out charges so that it's very easy to see where we're spending our communications dollars. That cost breakdown was difficult to obtain under the old system. Our communications costs have fluctuated over the past few years, and now we can fully and easily quantify them."

Delivering Truckloads of Trust

With more than 70 years of experience, Allied Van Lines is the oldest moving company in the United States. In addition to its 550 agent locations throughout North America, more than 850 employees work at Allied's corporate headquarters in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. Through its sister company, Allied International, Allied Van Lines is linked to major markets worldwide. Keeping up with the telecommunications needs of this dynamic company is no easy task.

A ten-year veteran, Irene Trainor manages a large PBX, a central voice mail system, a call center system and the call accounting program for the headquarters location. Her telemanagement system selection process, leading up to the purchase of Infortel-NT, was complex.

"In a joint effort with my telecommunications analyst, Barbara Anderson, we created a matrix which included everything from features and functionality, to cost, ease of use, customer service and maintenance," explains Trainor. "The entire evaluation took over three months."

"The ISI representatives were extremely patient and helpful, and answered all of our many questions, more so than any of the other vendors we work with," says Trainor. "In fact, I recently sent an e-mail message to one of ISI's Vice Presidents, commenting on how pleased we have been with his staff's ongoing support. Over a year after the purchase of the system, ISI's sales reps, technical staff and customer service contacts answer all of our questions promptly. It's rarely been my experience that a vendor continues to meet expectations post-sale. They usually make many promises and are responsive during the honeymoon, but don't always follow through like ISI has."

A System That Pulls Its Own Weight

Client/server applications are recognized for their ability to bring data readily to users. In addition, relational database systems make it possible to store large amounts of data on a server and to quickly access that data. Infortel-NT, based upon the Microsoft Windows NT client/server architecture, uses LAN/WAN connectivity and an Oracle relational database to provide the speedy and reliable data transmission that is so often lacking in traditional file processing systems.

A primary benefit of the NT operating system is its high stability. The kernel is protected from problems created by a malfunctioning program or process.

"We can store information going back much further than we could in the old system without worrying about any mishaps, crashes or running out of memory," notes Trainor. "It used to be such a hassle to go back for historical information, but that's not an issue anymore. Infortel-NT is extremely reliable."

On a mainframe system, running last month's call detail report might require a couple of hours. With Infortel-NT, it takes about five minutes.

"We're all able to use the system from our desktop, since we can access it through the LAN. The biggest benefit to us is the speed in processing," says Trainor. "It's just incredible compared to what we were accustomed to. In the past, it took a whole day to run the monthly summary. Now that report takes less than an hour. It's great!"