Nation's Largest Family-owned Ice Cream Maker Puts "Deep Freeze" On IT Troubles With CA's Unicenter TNG.

ISLANDIA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 1999--

Wells' Dairy Keeps Core ERP System Running Smoothly,

Delivers Applications Fresh To The Desktop With CA's

Industry-Leading Enterprise Management Solution

Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) announced today that Wells' Dairy, Inc., the world's largest family-owned and-managed dairy, is deploying CA's Unicenter TNG to manage its enterprise network computing environment.

The LeMars, Iowa-based dairy is implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) strategy to integrate its financial and manufacturing operations. Unicenter TNG is an integral component of the company's commitment to streamlining its operations by bringing the control of its resources under a common management umbrella.

Wells' Dairy's enterprise environment includes desktops running Windows 95, 98 and NT desktop; servers running NT server, OS400 and HP-UX, as well as both Oracle and Microsoft SQL databases --all linked across an extensive Cisco-based network.

"Success in the dairy business has become increasingly dependent on the effective use of information technologies," said Kim Norby, director of information systems. "Unicenter TNG is a critical, competitive resource in helping ensure that we get the maximum return on our IT investments while keeping our cost-of-ownership as low as possible."

Wells' Dairy evaluated competitive offerings such as IBM/Tivoli TME and Hewlett-Packard OpenView before making its selection. The company found OpenView "too fragmented" and IBM/Tivoli TME "difficult to implement." "Our assessment suggested that we would need professional services from IBM to make it work for us," said Norby.

Committed to handling the installation without relying too heavily on consultants, Wells' Dairy chose Unicenter TNG. "Because of our location, we often need to be self-sufficient, and Unicenter TNG's straightforward installation has allowed that," said Norby. "We also saw in Unicenter TNG an integrated set of solutions that would enable us to meet all of our near- and long-term operational objectives."

One of the most important Unicenter TNG components for Wells' Dairy is the Software Delivery Option. The company is realizing significant bottom-line savings by automating the process of updating desktops from a centralized point of control and making it totally transparent to end users.

"Previously, we relied on a manual process to keep our systems in synch and loaded with the latest software and drivers," recalled Norby. "But we've found that manual processes are not only inherently unreliable, but are also cost-prohibitive in today's tough hiring environment."

By using Unicenter TNG to remotely load every desktop with the most current version of its ERP application, Wells' Dairy has eliminated the need for technicians to physically install the new software at each desktop. The ERP application supports financial and manufacturing operations for large ice cream makers.

The old approach required more than 20-technician workdays for every upgrade. Even worse, the manual process forced end-users to wait for technicians to complete each installation.

By contrast, Unicenter TNG allows a single technician at a central console to automatically update each workstation with the latest software versions, fixes, and patches to keep the company's systems and applications software consistent and current.

Just as important, Unicenter TNG allows Wells' Dairy to conduct the software update process at night when the desktops are unattended. The company has also eliminated the latency period that occurs when half the end-users are using the latest version of software while the other half are still waiting to be updated.

The Wells' Dairy information technology (IT) staff also uses Unicenter TNG's Asset Management Option to help ensure that each desktop is properly configured to accept the remote software loads or updates without difficulty. From a central point of control, the IT staff runs each desktop configuration through the asset management process before installation to avoid problems such as lack of disk space. Asset management not only creates a valuable inventory of all IS resources, but increases end-user productivity by minimizing system outages.

Using the same process, Wells' Dairy recently used Unicenter TNG Software Delivery to successfully upgrade the company's email system from Microsoft Exchange to Microsoft Outlook with ease.

The centralized software distribution process also rebooted every system to initialize the software and ensure that it had loaded properly. Finally, Unicenter TNG generated a report noting any exceptions or discrepancies that required a technician's attention. "The entire process was automated to such an extent that it did not detract from end-user productivity in any way," said Norby.

Wells' Dairy plans to use Unicenter TNG and its Advanced Help Desk option to automatically monitor the dairy's Cisco network hardware and the Oracle and Microsoft software --alerting help desk staff to problems, and providing vital information to guide the technical staff in addressing them.

Future plans also include using Unicenter TNG to monitor non- IT technology assets such as ice cream makers and freezers. Customized agents will allow such resources to be integrated into the Unicenter TNG management umbrella.

"The Unicenter TNG architecture opens up a tremendous range of possibilities as we move forward with our implementation," said Norby. "We look forward to using it as a strategic business enabler as we bring Wells' Dairy into the next millennium."

Wells' Dairy, Inc., is the world's largest family owned and managed dairy and the largest co-packer of ice cream in the nation. As the world's largest manufacturer of ice cream in one location, Wells' Dairy, Inc. has made Le Mars, Iowa the "Ice Cream Capital of the World." BLUE BUNNY(R) branded items are distributed across the nation and in many foreign countries. Products manufactured by Wells' can be found in all 50 states through co-packer arrangements. The company operates two ice cream plants and a milk plant in Le Mars, along with a milk plant and freezer in Omaha, Nebraska; a freezer/cooler in Kansas City, Missouri; and distribution centers in El Paso, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona. Over 1700 production, sales, office, and support personnel make up the Wells' Dairy family. The Wells' Dairy World Wide Web address is www.bluebunny.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.

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