Airlines Reporting Corporation Serves Nearly 10,000 Travel Agents and Carriers with MicroStrategy Technology
Reduces Costs and Simplifies Access to Information
McLean, Va., (December 09, 2002) –
MicroStrategy® Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence software, today announced that Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) is helping approximately 10,000 of its customers save money and enhance efficiency and productivity by providing them with quick access to transaction data through its MicroStrategy-based extranet application. As the airline industry’s financial settlement system for the United States and Puerto Rico, Arlington, Va.-based ARC processes approximately 150 million ticket transactions per year for its customers, which include approximately 30,000 travel agents and more than 130 domestic and international carriers.
ARC used the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform(TM) to build the ARC Document Retrieval System, which allows travel agents and carriers to access summaries and details of millions of airline ticket transactions over the Web. Prior to the availability of the ARC Document Retrieval System, agents and carriers had to rely on paper copies of ticket documents, microfiche and back-office systems to research ticket information for all of these transactions.
“The ARC Document Retrieval System is an example of how ARC is providing innovative solutions for our customers — travel agents and carriers — so that they can receive timely access to the information they require,” said John Kyle, General Manager of ARC COMPASS, the analytical services division of ARC. “The MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform enables us to support thousands of users over the Web with a clean interface that requires little or no training for end users. Agents and carriers are saving substantial time and money by not having to print and rely on paper.”
“With MicroStrategy we are able to deploy information manageably via a single, easy-to-use Web interface for both agents and carriers. The ARC Document Retrieval System has significantly improved ticket research times and reduced the number of errors that can result from different customers having different views of the data,” added Kyle.
“Fast, cost-effective deployment of business intelligence reports is critical for applications like the ARC Document Retrieval System,” said Sanju K. Bansal, vice chairman and chief operating officer of MicroStrategy Incorporated. “MicroStrategy’s zero-footprint Web client provides robust business intelligence functionality without requiring downloads like ActiveX or Java Applets. This is especially important for extranet applications as it helps organizations meet the most stringent firewall and security requirements and eliminates the need for client-side administration. We are delighted to be able to make deployment via extranets easier and more secure, and help customers create opportunities to enhance efficiency that in turn boost overall business performance.”
For more information on Web-based business intelligence applications, join MicroStrategy for an online seminar: http://www.microstrategy.com/Events/Online_Seminars/index.asp.
About Airlines Reporting Corporation
ARC – the Airlines Reporting Corporation – is an airline-owned company offering travel products and services, ticket distribution and settlement through a variety of channels in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. ARC is the trusted cornerstone of the air travel industry, integral to its success and future. ARC offers the best settlement engine, is the recognized industry data store, and is the premier provider of industry knowledge and insight. There are over 30,000 ARC accredited travel agency locations and approximately 134 participating airlines and railroads in ARC’s settlement system. Using increasingly sophisticated electronic means for ticket distribution, reporting, and remittance, these points of sale are responsible for air and rail sales of nearly $70 billion a year. For more information about ARC, please visit www.arccorp.com.
About MicroStrategy Incorporated
Leadership in a Critical Market: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a worldwide leader in the increasingly critical business intelligence software market. Large and small companies alike are harnessing MicroStrategy’s business intelligence software to gain vital insights from their data to help them proactively enhance cost-efficiency, productivity and customer relations and optimize revenue-generating strategies. MicroStrategy’s business intelligence platform offers exceptional capabilities that provide organizations — in virtually all facets of their operations — with user-friendly solutions to their data query, reporting, and advanced analytical needs, and distributes valuable insight on this data to users via Web, wireless, and voice. PC Magazine selected MicroStrategy 7(TM) as the 2001 “Editors’ Choice” for business intelligence software.
Enterprise-Class Business Intelligence: MicroStrategy 7i(TM) is a truly integrated, enterprise-class, Web-based business intelligence platform. With MicroStrategy 7i, enterprises can now standardize on one business intelligence platform and deploy high-value business intelligence enterprise-wide. MicroStrategy 7i’s configurable query, reporting, and OLAP Web interface is designed to support all users, from casual report viewers to power analysts.
Diverse Customer Base: MicroStrategy’s customer base cuts across industry and sector lines, with over 1,700 enterprise-class customers, including Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, AT&T Wireless Group, Wachovia and GlaxoSmithKline. MicroStrategy also has relationships with over 400 systems integrators and application development and platform partners, including IBM, PeopleSoft, Hewlett-Packard, and JD Edwards.
MicroStrategy is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MSTR. For more information on the Company, or to purchase or demo MicroStrategy’s software, please visit MicroStrategy’s Web site at http://www.microstrategy.com.
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Alka Nayyar
MicroStrategy Incorporated
(703) 847-4897
anayyar@microstrategy.com
Source: MicroStrategy