Herndon, VA - February 4, 2003 - Windward Consulting Group, Inc., a leading provider of Operational Management solutions, today announced that it has designed and deployed a robust performance management solution for Focal Communications Corporation. The solution provides the framework and capability for Focal Communications to improve the monitoring and tracking of service level agreements, enhancing overall customer satisfaction while achieving the ability to bill dedicated Internet access customers based on their actual usage of the network, not intended usage.
"Superior customer service has always been a top priority at Focal and is something that truly differentiates us from our competition," said William Heilenbach, Director of Data Network Engineering at Focal Communications Corporation. "With the robust architecture and solution that Windward has delivered to us, we are able to monitor our operations more efficiently, while effectively and proactively providing enhanced services to our dedicated Internet access customers. On top of all of this, we were able to achieve this capability in a relatively short time-frame, producing measurable results much sooner than we had anticipated."
The robust solution is based on components from the InfoVista product set and was enhanced to provide additional functionality and capabilities to achieve specific business objectives. The outcome was a system that gives Focal the capability to measure utilization of circuits by customers who have chosen to be billed on a metered basis for their dedicated Internet access service. This monitoring is then tied directly to the billing system, so that customers who exceed contracted usage levels are billed accordingly.
"What has occurred at Focal is an excellent example of what can happen when you couple a leading solution with a premier integrator," Joe Bergera, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, InfoVista. "It is not surprising to me that Windward was able to utilize products from the InfoVista suite as the foundation to build a component of an information management system that results in productivity improvements for Focal. As a premier business partner, Windward has proven that it has the strength and expertise to maximize the value that customers can experience from our suite of products."
"It is our number one priority that we identify architectures and implement the solutions that enable our customers to respond to business needs and achieve their business objectives," said Sean McDermott, President and CEO of Windward Consulting Group. "The results at Focal are one of hundreds that make me proud of the industry experts we have here at Windward. As a trusted advisor to our clients, our team continues to demonstrate its' ability to understand business needs and objectives, identify specific products and then customize a solution that adds significant value to day to day operations and to the overall bottom line."