Blue Cross and Blue Shield member plan moves 100 percent of mainframe storage to EMC Symmetrix systems; Superior performance of EMC's Symmetrix storage systems help Washington, D.C., insurer expand daily online customer service window by five hours

Business Wire, Nov 27, 1995

HOPKINTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 27, 1995--EMC Corporation today announced that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area has moved all of its mainframe computer data storage to EMC's Symmetrix 5500 Integrated Cached Disk Array (ICDA) systems.

The Washington, D.C.-based insurer uses EMC's Symmetrix systems to provide high-performance, intelligent storage for a range of health insurance applications, such as online plan adjudication, eligibility verification, enrollment, and batch claims processing. The Symmetrix systems store a total 1.2 terabytes of data, which is equivalent to the information contained in 300 million insurance claims. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area has completely replaced its IBM and Hitachi mainframe storage equipment with EMC's Symmetrix.

"With the advent of managed care, there has been an absolute explosion of information relating to claims," said Ray Blosse, Vice President, Corporate Systems Division, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area. "EMC gives us a significant competitive advantage in being able to manage this information much more quickly and nimbly than we could before. This has translated into dramatically improved customer service and lower administrative costs."

"When we initially moved some data from IBM to EMC, we were astonished by the difference in performance," explained Sam Bennet, Manager of Storage Management and Business Recovery, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area. "Since going 100 percent EMC, we've been able to keep our online window open until midnight for our D.C. area customers. Before, we had to close everything down at 7 p.m. to begin the batch processing."

Blue Cross and Blue Shield credits the Symmetrix systems with reducing online response time by more than 50 percent and file response time, in some cases, by as much as 400 percent. EMC also enabled the insurer to cut batch processing time down from nine to four hours. All of these benefits were accomplished without additional expenditures for staff, software or communications facilities.

"The cost benefits have been equally impressive," noted Bennet. "EMC's ability to pack a tremendous amount of power and capacity into a small system allowed us to reduce floor space requirements by 3,000 square feet, and decrease our cooling and power requirements by 50 percent."

"Customers like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area recognize that strategic information storage choices can result in substantial improvements in productivity and customer satisfaction," said Richard Blaschke, EMC's Vice President, Enterprise Systems. "Blue Cross and Blue Shield is realizing the full potential of these strategic benefits by depending on EMC for all of their mainframe storage needs."

The Symmetrix systems also support Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's national telecommunications network, which is managed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area. Regional Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans around the country access the national network to exchange claims information for customers with subscribers in multiple states.

EMC Corporation, based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is a world leader in enterprise-wide information storage and retrieval technology, designing systems for mainframe, midrange and open systems environments. The company has offices worldwide and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC.

CONTACT: EMC Corporation

Dave Farmer

(508) 435-1000