INDUSTRY

Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) today announced that Banca Intesa, Italy's largest banking group and a leading player in European financial markets, has selected CA management solutions to manage its vast and complex IT infrastructure. By partnering with CA, Banca Intesa expects to maximize service levels by optimizing the performance, reliability and efficiency of critical information systems. "CA support for the complete range of network, server and application resources in Banca Intesa's portfolio will enable us to consolidate management, streamline processes, and integrate enterprise systems without wholesale replacement of infrastructure components," said Romano De Carlo, CEO of Intesa Sistemi e Servizi S.p.A. (ISS), which was created to manage IT services for Banca Intesa. "CA is the ideal partner for tackling the challenges of such a complex and large-scale IT operation." Key objectives for the bank's IT initiatives include: * Proactive management and troubleshooting of the bank's end-to-end infrastructure. * Enterprise-wide inventory and asset management. * Unified tracking of all IT operations and service requests. * Proactive management of the bank's ATMs from both a technical (i.e., network and systems faults) and operational perspective (i.e., lack of banknotes or paper). * Integration of technical events directly into the bank's help desk system. * Improved service-level management agreements. To achieve these objectives, the bank is deploying a wide range of CA solutions for seamless, integrated IT management: Unicenter for infrastructure and help desk management, BrightStor for storage management, and AllFusion and Advantage for application development and life cycle management. CA Technology Services will assist with the implementation of CA technology. Banca Intesa group, originated from the integration of three major players in Italy's banking system -- Banca Commerciale Italiana, Banco Ambrosiano Veneto and Cariplo, holds a forefront position in a wide range of activities targeted to 9 million customers, individual and businesses, through an extensive and deeply-rooted network exceeding 3,000 branches all over Italy. Internationally, Banca Intesa operates approximately 700 branches in over 30 countries serving 2.5 million customers. Banca Intesa is a full service banking group that provides a wide range of retail and commercial banking and other financial services. Banca Intesa's principal services focus on deposit taking, lending, collection and payment services, investment banking, capital market services, securities custody and settlement, foreign currency transactions, leasing, factoring, asset and mutual fund management, supplementary pension schemes and life insurance. "Banca Intesa's ability to serve the needs of its enormous customer base depends heavily on the smooth, efficient operation of its massive IT environment," said Alfonso Nobilio, Regional Manager at Computer Associates Italy. "We are honored to have been selected as the bank's strategic partner for such a critical undertaking and look forward to demonstrating the unmatched business value of CA's technology and talent."