CableData Inc. announces formation of the Professional Services Group; group anticipates evolving market needs and responds to customer requests with wide variety of innovative services.

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 1996--Mike McGrail, president and general manager of CableData Inc., a leading provider of transaction management and billing support systems for the cable, telecommunications and convergence industries, Tuesday announce the formation of CableData's Professional Services Group.

Led by Rick Cluthe, vice president, Professional Services Group, the new group draws upon the company's three decades of experience and unmatched expertise in the cable, DBS and combined cable/telephony industries to provide a variety of innovative business solutions to CableData's customers, associates and partners in the global telecommunications industry.

Already involved in projects worldwide, the Professional Services Group was formed in anticipation of changing market needs and in response to customer requests. As the cable and telecommunications markets evolve and converge, and as new players enter the arena, service providers are discovering a host of new and unanticipated needs. By utilizing the vast archive of industry knowledge CableData possesses, the Group allows CableData to offer the communications industry a wide variety of business services, from education and consulting to systems support and technical writing.

"The Professional Services Group enables our customers to take advantage of CableData's 30 years of experience in cable television and its leadership position in the converged services industry," said McGrail in announcing the new group. "The Professional Services Group complements CableData's dedication to service excellence and innovative products for the rapidly changing telecommunications environment. Today's CableData is more than a transaction management system vendor. We partner with our customers, drawing upon our vast product and knowledge resources to provide innovative solutions to their specific business challenges."

"When one of our key technical managers had to take a leave of absence, I turned to CableData Professional Services for help," said Tom DeGloma, director of MIS, Time Warner Communications, Mid-South Division. "CableData provided us with a seasoned consultant who was productive from the moment he joined us. His knowledge of the cable business, coupled with a `hands on' knowledge of CableData's products, enabled us to continue with business as usual. Our decision to use CableData Professional Services has proven to be a sound one."

The Professional Services Group is comprised of four complementary organizations: Education Services, Consulting Services, System Support Services and Technical Writing Services.

The Education Services unit combines a staff of experienced training specialists with advanced technologies to create a suite of education and training programs. It was formed to provide CableData Customers and partners with historical and forward-looking perspectives of the industry; sales and demonstration techniques; product development, and support services for CableData products. Two CableData education centers, located in the United States and the United Kingdom, offer instructor-based product and industry courses; on-site training at customers' facilities; video-based independent training kits, and ClassROM, the industry's first interactive, multimedia CD-ROM training package.

The Consulting Services team is comprised of independent analysts and consultants who provide extensive knowledge, experience and people-based solutions to the rapidly converging telecommunications industry. Services include pre- and post-sales analysis; operational audits and data reconciliation; office resource definition; workflow analysis; procedural evaluations, and definitions of procedures.

The Systems Support Services team utilizes proactive methods to enhance the systems and technology employed by CableData products. The catalog of services offered by this unit includes data warehousing and decision support services that provide custom specifications for ad hoc reporting; database services such as system definition and initialization, system expansion, database migrations and system consolidations; systems services including operations and resource utilization, capacity and performance analysis, platform benchmarks and operational reviews, and network services such as topology design and support through network consolidation and performance and bandwidth evaluations.

Staffed by technical writers, curriculum developers, instructional designers and graphic artists, the Technical Writing Services unit is responsible for developing the reference libraries for CableData products, processes and systems. Over 100 product reference guides have been produced by CableData's national award-winning team. Dedicated to empowering its customers to engage the full potential of CableData products and services, Technical Writing Services is actively creating documentation innovations such as migrating reference materials to online and CD-ROM media with hypertext search, display and print functionalities.

With headquarters in Rancho Cordova, CableData commands over 50% of the transaction management and billing market in the U.S. cable industry, and has more than 20 installations overseas. For decades, companies worldwide have relied on CableData's software and billing services to strategically manage growing subscriber bases, deliver accurate customer statements, and anticipate and respond to change. Today, CableData serves over 33 million cable subscribers worldwide.

CONTACT: CableData, Rancho Cordova

Linda Beech Cutler, 916/636-5846

Email: [e-mail]

or

Capital Relations Inc.

Kathleen Gawel or Lisa Zylstra, 805/494-0830

Email: [e-mail]