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It's been over two years since hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and efforts to rebuild the city are on-going. Never has the need for field services and the technology to support them, been more important than in the aftermath of Katrina. Technicians of all kinds have had to be on the streets restoring and repairing services. As peoples' lives slowly return to normal, it's crucial that they get their homes and businesses back up and running. In the wake of Katrina, Hammond, Louisiana based Barrister Global Services Network (Barrister) has been responsible for helping to restore IT services to both the commercial and residential markets.

When Katrina hit in 2005, Barrister had been using Nexterna's legacy service management software – FieldPro, originally deployed in 1996 - to manage their large network of 15,000 third party field service technicians. Barrister's extensive network of resources is responsible for on-site and depot repair, installation and de-installation, end-of-life product management, warranty administration support and parts logistics for clients across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Caribbean. Katrina caused severe damage to Barrister's office, with a good part of the roof sheared off, broken windows and of course substantial water damage. In addition to the damaged offices, an off-site warehouse / depot repair facility was flooded with 4 feet of water and to make matters worse, the contents of the building were looted. Overall Barrister lost close to $1M worth of equipment. As a service organization, it was extremely fortunate that the call center was not affected. Management decided to temporarily relocate to Austin, Texas, while their facilities were being restored.

"100% of management and 60% of the employees made the move to Austin. "We were up and running in 2½ days on a completely new I.T. environment" says Gerry Solis, Sales Solution Engineer at Barrister. "We returned to New Orleans after basically living in a hotel for almost 3 months. The move was made easier with the support of our totally dedicated employees here at Barrister. " says Solis. "In all Barrister lost 30% of its workforce, indeed one half of those has not been heard from since. The fact that we only lost 1 customer through the whole ordeal is a testament to the dedication of the Barrister team. It's amazing what the human spirit is capable of under such extreme circumstances", said Solis proudly.

Barrister management decided to use the rebuilding process as an opportunity to improve its service processes by implementing Nexterna's best of breed service management application, Clearview. The first phase of the upgrade project - residential services - went into production in February 2007.

Clearview's Dispatch Board was implemented to effectively assign and dispatch the right technician from a network of thousands. The Service Order module is used to track all service-related activities for cost analysis and invoicing; Contract Administration is used to manage Barrister's large number of service agreements; Clearview's new Product Desktop module was implemented to track the installed base of every customer in the system.

As a third party service organization, Barrister provides a wide range of I.T. services on behalf of one of America's largest retail chains. With the implementation of CVLink and Clearview Integration Services (CVIS) Barrister is now benefiting from real-time integration to their customers' call center systems as well as vendor's procurement systems. As service calls are created externally they are automatically interfaced with Clearview's Service Order module. CVIS manages the bi-directional flow of data between these systems which does have the data in varying formats. Barrister has also realized productivity gains with real-time integration to companies such as FedEx, DHL and UPS. CVIS also interfaces with their accounting system for accounts receivable, master data and payable transactions.

"With the upgrade to Clearview, Barrister has seen a 30% improvement in overall efficiency with faster customer billing and a 25% reduction in residential service administration efforts" , claims Solis. "Our objective is a 30% increase in efficiency when the commercial business goes into production in November".

"We're also scheduled to go "live" with the Clearview Web Access module for customers at the same time. Technician Web Access will be completed in the next few months and we're anticipating additional improvements to the bottom line with these new capabilities", says Solis.

Since the rebuilding of Barristers' offices, they have provided hardware services to over 19,200 locations across the United States, managing to grow their business despite the challenges of the past two years.

"The I.T. services industry is a strategic vertical for Nexterna. As one of our larger customers in this space, and on the second anniversary of Katrina, we want to congratulate Barrister on the success of their rebuilding efforts." says Sherry Jackson, CEO of Nexterna.

"The Barrister team is to be applauded for their total dedication. They have endured and overcome many challenges over the last two years and the entire Nexterna team congratulates them on their accomplishments" says Debbie Gardiner, Vice President, Customer Service for Nexterna.

About Barrister Global Services Network
Barrister Global Services Network provides multi-vendor IT services, delivering superior resolution to client/server hardware challenges. We serve customers in commercial and consumer markets through direct and indirect channels and manage over 15,000 certified technicians located throughout North America. We get the right technical skill and the right part to the right location at the right time for fast and predictable problem resolution to our customers' hardware challenges.

Founded in 1972, Barrister is a Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) Certified Woman Owned Company. Barrister is the nation's oldest and largest certified woman-owned provider of multi-vendor IT services.

About Nexterna Limited
A proud history of innovation, service industry expertise and exceptional customer service, Nexterna has been providing best-of-breed service management applications since 1987. , Nexterna continues to create innovative systems for field service organizations of all types. Customers look to Nexterna to help them deliver improved customer service, reduce service delivery costs and increase efficiency of mobile resources. With the launch of the very first integrated Field Service Management application that featured integration of GPS tracking and mobile communication systems, Nexterna took its place as 'best in class' business solution leader. We are proud of our legacy, and look forward to providing you and your business with our expertise, our unique systems, and our passion for exceptional service.

For More information on Nexterna visit www.nexterna.com

For more information on Barrister Global Services Network visit www.barrister.com

SOURCE: Nexterna Limited