DVD-R, but no MPEG-2 compression needed for this ap................
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CASE STUDY
First Data Corporation and Pioneer's DVD Recorder
Every month, First Data Corporation archives more than 225 million black-and-white and color pages of statements, reports, and other documents onto over 15,000 CD-ROMs. First Data Digital-ROM Services, a business unit of the electronic commerce giant, is in charge of processing, authorizing, and archiving these types of transactions for more than 1,400 card issuing clients like Chase, NationsBank, Signet, and American Express. Use a credit, debit, or stored-value card, and First Data is quite possibly authorizing your transaction and keeping a record on behalf of the company that issued your card.
In 1997, the company stored information on 180 million credit, debit, and other accounts, creating 2.5 billion pages of data, including printed billing statements, for its customers. To manage this vast amount of information, Digital-ROM Services uses CD-Recordable technology and has become the largest original CD-R production operation in the U.S. with over 75,000 CD-R discs produced last year alone.
"CD-R has allowed us to capture, index, and provide data to our clients in a form that is easily stored and readily accessible," says Tarry Hempel, director of Digital-ROM Services at First Data. "The only hitch is that we're often sending multiple CDs to many of our clients because they require so much data. These quickly accumulate and can take up a great deal of physical space."
Hempel has been keeping an eye on storage developments, waiting for the next evolution so he could better serve his customers and streamline his operation. That's where DVD comes in. "DVD technology provides exactly the kinds of benefits our customers value-greater capacity and better performance. We've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of recordable DVD. It will enable us to reduce significantly the number of discs we're sending our clients."
To jump into the DVD revolution, First Data Digital-ROM Services recently purchased the new DVR-S101 DVD-Recordable drive from Pioneer New Media Technologies and is preparing to move many of its high-volume customers to DVD [See Hugh Bennett's July 1998 article, "In DVD's Own Image: DVD-Recordable Rollout and Ramification"-Ed.].
"We produce three types of documents-reports, heritage files, and enterprise statements-for our clients and have seen tremendous advantages to each using DVD-R over CD-R," states Hempel. For example, one DVD disc can hold up to one million enterprise statements (on average) whereas only 150,000 can be stored on a CD; a DVD disc can hold up to 1.5 million reports while a mere 250,000 will fit onto one CD; and 5.2 million heritage (or ASCII) files fill a DVD as opposed to one million on CD.
With DVD-R's 3.95GB capacity per disc, Hempel need only burn two discs-one DVD-R and one CD-R-per day for his average customer where he previously needed five to eight CD-R discs to store the same amount of information. Fewer discs translate into less hassle and greater convenience for First Data's clients.
In addition, a complete DVD-R disc can be written in 50 minutes, significantly cutting down the time it takes to record the same amount of data to CD-R. Six CD-R discs take three hours to burn, but a DVD-R disc can be produced in less than an hour, saving both valuable storage space and time. This has contributed to greater efficiency within Digital-ROM Services and the ability to record more volumes of data per day.
"We expect our customers to be clamoring for their information on DVD-R instead of CD-R because it takes only a simple adjustment that creates so many benefits," states Hempel. "By upgrading their CD-ROM drives to new DVD-ROM drives, customers can use the DVD-R discs, gaining valuable storage space and increasing retrieval speed. In fact, with the multiread capabilities these second-generation DVD-ROM drives have, older CD-R discs won't become obsolete and the user will move forward with the latest technology."
Digital-ROM Services also burns a back-up copy for security purposes and online access from networked Pioneer jukeboxes. DVD will allow them to store nearly one terabyte of information within a single jukebox. With the random access retrieval time these jukeboxes can provide, stored data is practically at the user's fingertips.
"We knew there would be inherent benefits to DVD and decided to become an early adopter," says Hempel. "With DVD-R we're investing in technology that will enable us to set new standards for client service."
(For more information, contact Pioneer New Media Technologies, 2265 East 220th Street, Long Beach, CA 90810; 888/411-DVDR, 310/952-2111; Fax 310/952-2990; pioneerusa.com)
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