Southwest Airlines Standardizes on CA Solutions to Reduce Mainframe Management Costs and Complexity

Southwest Airlines Standardizes on CA Solutions to Reduce Mainframe Management Costs and Complexity

Superior Product Functionality, Flexible Licensing, and Exceptional Service Prompts Southwest to Replace Existing Products with CA Software

ISLANDIA, N.Y., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA) today announced that Southwest Airlines is standardizing on CA's mainframe management software to reduce IT costs and optimize system performance. CA's AllFusion, BrightStor and Unicenter solutions replace a combination of mainframe products from other vendors.

Southwest Airlines, the country's most profitable airline, operates in a highly volatile and competitive industry. The company's ability to fulfill its commitment to on-time flights and award-winning customer service is dependent on its legacy systems, which run numerous applications that support the airline's operation.

Southwest Airlines has made a strategic decision to focus its IT procurement on a limited number of vendors where possible and practical. This strategy is intended to help Southwest Airlines streamline operations, improve resource utilization, avoid paying for redundant functionality, and more tightly integrate the systems that support its business.

The superior functionality of CA's storage management, life cycle management and performance management software -- combined with more cost-effective, flexible licensing and exceptional service -- led Southwest Airlines to standardize on CA software. Southwest Airlines' IT staff made the decision after a thorough and extensive evaluation of competing vendors' software and support.

"CA differentiated itself from other vendors by working with us as a partner to help engineer and implement a complete, integrated solution for our aggressive business goals," said Verlon Croney, Southwest Airlines' manager of mainframe engineering. "CA delivered technology, migration services, licensing and support that were all superior to anything anyone else could offer."

By streamlining procurement, Southwest Airlines is achieving new economies of scale while remaining competitive during a challenging time in the airline industry. Southwest Airlines is implementing CA's Unicenter CA-SYSVIEW Realtime Performance Management, BrightStor CA-Vantage Allocation Option and a suite of AllFusion testing and fault management solutions. To expedite the migration from pre-existing tools, CA Technology Services is providing on-site training, hands-on implementation assistance and technical consulting services.

Southwest Airlines is also using BrightStor CA-Vantage Storage Resource Manager to monitor and control mainframe storage resources and CA's Advantage CA-IDMS database to manage financial data, more closely track inventory and enhance other key business functions.

"To achieve competitive advantage, companies in highly competitive markets need to optimize their data center operations, reduce costs and improve service levels," said Juliette Sultan, senior vice president of product marketing at CA. "Southwest Airlines has discovered that CA is an ideal partner for these efforts because of our unmatched expertise in delivering highly effective, fully streamlined and exceptionally cost-effective solutions."

About Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) is the nation's largest carrier in terms of scheduled domestic departures. The airline currently serves 60 airports in 59 cities in 31 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates 2,900 flights a day and has 32,000 employees system-wide.

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About CA



Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA), the world's largest management software company, delivers software and services across operations, security, storage, life cycle and service management to optimize the performance, reliability and efficiency of enterprise IT environments. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, N.Y. and serves customers in more than 140 countries. For more information, please visit http://ca.com/.

Computer Associates International, Inc. One Computer Associates Plaza, Islandia, N.Y. 11749. All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20021111/CALOGO
Source: Computer Associates International, Inc.

CONTACT: Michael Kornspan, of Computer Associates International, Inc.,
+1-631-342-2463, michael.kornspan@ca.com

Web site: http://ca.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/196575.html


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