Al Batha Group automates and streamlines Service Desk management across 60 business locations


Dubai, UAE; 15 March 2004 - Computer Associates Middle East (CA-ME) announced recently that Al Batha Group (ABT), one of the largest diversified groups of companies in the UAE, has successfully deployed CA's Unicenter ServicePlus Service Desk to simplify management of its complex, geographically dispersed IT infrastructure across 60 business unit locations.
 
Al Batha Group comprises more than 20 different companies engaged in a diverse range of activities including manufacturing, engineering, distribution, printing and construction.
 
As the Group's operations expanded and diversified, it became increasingly complex to manage its business-critical IT infrastructure, and costs kept rising. After evaluating a variety of vendors' offerings, ABT selected CA's Unicenter ServicePlus Service Desk as its strategic helpdesk management platform. Key factors in the Group's decision included the ease of use of CA's technology, the rich functions of the Unicenter ServicePlus Service Desk solution and the strength of CA-ME's support services.
 
ABT is using Unicenter ServicePlus Service Desk to handle technical support requests from SAP users, maintain the health of its IT infrastructure, prevent potential performance problems and automate reporting from its 60 locations from a centralized location.
 
iIts ServicePlus Service Desk has enabled ABT to increase the speed and efficiency of problem resolution. Reporting issues is very user friendly and the reports can be automatically routed to the correct SAP consultant. In addition to minimizing downtime and reducing operational costs, this automation strategy is enabling ABT to re-deploy IT staff in more strategic technology areas.
 
Using Unicenter ServicePlus Service Desk categorises issues into five levels of importance, with the first level to be actioned within two hours. This helps to prioritise support calls and to reduce pressure on IT staff.
 
"Previously, each issue we had to resolve was its own headache and led to a paper trail that grew and grew. Now that this has been automated, we can monitor the service levels we maintain to support our users. We are also planning to implement the knowledge management tools available in the Service Desk solution,” said Saji Oommen, Group IT Manger of ABT.
 
Quresh Goga, Regional Director of Gulf region at CA-ME said: “Many companies in the UAE grew and diversified very rapidly during the 60s and 70s. Then during the 80s and 90s a variety of IT solutions were implemented by different business units with no central cohesion or coordination. We are delighted to have been chosen by Al Batha to help rationalise and streamline their IT assets Group-wide.”
 
Unicenter ServicePlus Service Desk has been ranked as a market leader in the META Group's recently released METAspectrumSM for IT Service Desk Tools. The solution manages an organisation’s bottom-line operational costs, reducing labour and systems costs while increasing service levels. Its end-to-end tight integration with asset management, systems management, network management and other critical IT disciplines drives overall operational efficiency.
 
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About Computer Associates
Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA), one of the world's largest software companies, delivers software and services that enable organizations to manage their IT environments. Focus areas include network and systems management, storage and security management, portal and business intelligence, and application life cycle management. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, NY, and operates in more than 100 countries. For more information on CA, please visit http://ca.com
 
Computer Associates Middle East (CA-ME), with headquarters in Riyadh, employs over 95 professionals and maintains offices in Al-Khobar and Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, as well as Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Being the regions leading IT management solution provider, CA-ME provides CA solutions that are used by many of the largest organizations in the banking, government, oil and gas, manufacturing and telecommunication sectors in the Middle East. For more information please visit us at: www.ca-me.com 
 
Issued on behalf of CA-ME by Matrix PR. For further information contact Dubai 343 0888.

© Press Release 2004