Cole National Corp. Selects CA's Unicenter TNG to Promote Its Vision of Centralized Cross-Platform Enterprise Management.

ISLANDIA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1999--

Nation's Largest Eyewear Retailer Uses CA Software To Streamline

Order Processing And Workload Management For Six Optical Labs

Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) today announced that Cole National Corporation, the parent company of Cole Managed Vision, a provider of vision benefits to corporations and health plans, has selected Unicenter TNG for enterprise-wide network and operations management to better support its rapidly expanding network.

Cole National Corporation selected Unicenter TNG to help integrate an extensive eyewear network that includes Sears Optical and Pearle Vision throughout the U.S. The company relies on its enterprise network to enable every aspect of its operations, from initial order processing to customer delivery.

"Our goal is to use Unicenter TNG to deliver more reliable and responsive network services to our users throughout the enterprise without adding to the headcount in the IT area," said Tim Barrett, director of telecommunication and network services at Cole National. "This can provide an immediate return-on-investment to Cole National."

By deploying Unicenter TNG to the six company-owned optical laboratories throughout the country, Cole National has already seen significant benefits from its investment. The company uses a network of HP-9000 UNIX systems to manage order processing, workload management, manufacturing and distribution.

In its first application, the company implemented Unicenter TNG workload management across the optical labs so that workload and event management can be handled centrally from the company's data center in Twinsburg, OH.

"Unicenter TNG will allow us to run every application in all of our lab locations and to monitor the process from a central console," said Barrett. "By avoiding the need to hire and train technicians dedicated to each optical lab, we expect our investment in Unicenter TNG to quickly pay for itself."

Cole National Corporation's IT environment supports about 2,000 Sears Optical and Pearle Vision stores. It includes a mix of HP servers for Cole Managed Vision and the optical laboratories, AS/400 midrange systems for retail transaction processing, Windows NT servers for knowledge workers, and a growing NetWare-network.

Cole National carefully reviewed its options for enterprise management before selecting Unicenter TNG. Cole National felt the CA solution delivered a robust level of integration for the functionality it wanted.

"We didn't want to be system integrators for best-of-breed management solutions," said Barrett. "We liked the idea of one-stop shopping for all our enterprise management requirements. We felt that Unicenter TNG offered us everything we needed and could reasonably require in the near future."

The expertise of CA's Global Professional Services (GPS) played a crucial role in Cole's decision. Cole's IT staff was already fully committed to strategic projects and the company did not want to pull them away. GPS provided a turnkey solution that Cole believes saved the company considerable time.

"This is a classic example of an organization leveraging technology to put a check on the costly practice of constantly adding to IT staffing levels," said Barrett. "When it comes to managing routine processes, we believe that automation represents a better investment to the organization so that our IT people can devote their skills to more value-added activities."

Cole National Corporation is the nation's leading eyewear retailer, operating as Sears Optical and Pearle Vision. It is also a retailer of personalized gifts through Things Remembered stores nationwide. One of Cole's highest growth businesses is its Managed Vision Care division, which provides vision plans for corporations and health plans. The Managed Vision Care division services over 50 million members. For more information, visit Cole's web site at http://www.colenational.com.

Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE: CA), the world leader in mission-critical business computing, provides software, support and integration services in more than 100 countries around the world. CA has more than 13,000 employees and had revenue of $5.1 billion in calendar year 1998.

For more information about CA, please call 516-342-5224 or email [e-mail]. CA's World Wide Web address is www.cai.com.

All referenced product names are trademarks of their respective companies.