NTT DATA Philippines [formerly DB Wizards] tapped as one of the first in the world to deploy BETA 2 Edition of Microsoft SQL SERVER 2005

TAP, a direct feedback program, engages a select group of participants who are committed to working closely with the Microsoft development team on a product such as SQL Server 2005, from the earliest stages of development up to its final release. Generally, this means NTT DATA Philippines possessed sufficient project resources and technical expertise to work tightly with Microsoft on testing and deploying SQL Server 2005 and had the ability to run pre-release of SQL Server 2005 into their development environment. In turn, Microsoft's SQL Server product team provided direct support to NTT DATA Philippines including architectural and solution guidance. The feedback from the TAP program also has the ability to influence the Microsoft product team regarding features, functionality, and future needs.

Building on the success of SQL Server 2000, Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 with its full product version expected to be launched second half of 2005 promises to be the biggest release of SQL Server yet, and NTT DATA Philippines is keen on working diligently to bring this technology to the Philippine market. Microsoft guarantees breakthrough in performance, scalability and availability from SQL Server 2005. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 also provides dramatically expanded data mining capabilities.

This was recently realized by ABS-CBN Interactive (ABSi), a subsidiary of the largest integrated media and entertainment company, who partnered with NTT DATA Philippines for a data mining solution that resulted to more accurate and personalized service recommendations and a doubling in response rates from marketing campaigns. According to Grace Cunanan, Technical Specialist for ABS-CBN Interactive, "Our management is very impressed that we could double our response rate through our SQL Server 2005 data mining."

Since partnering with NTT DATA Philippines and upgrading to SQL Server 2005, ABSi has enjoyed the benefits of its data warehouse and data mining solutions, specifically, a 100% increase in the response rate to its cross-selling promotions and a significant growth in prediction, allowing them to send out more precise recommendations to more users.

Through SQL Server 2005, users now get accurate and up-to-date reports as well as do ad hoc reporting against the data warehouse, gathering information in minutes instead of days, which enables them to make more timely observations and decisions.

According to Poch Reyes, Technology Solutions Manager for NTT DATA Philippines, SQL Server 2005 has provided managers a platform to analyze timely information so they can respond quickly to the market. It has revolutionized how managers analyze their data. They can now look at different views of their data like never before.

"SQL Server 2005 data mining has a much faster model training process than SQL Server 2000," says Reyes. "The typical models that we use take several hours with SQL Server 2000, but now only take minutes to process with SQL Server 2005 using the same hardware configuration. This huge reduction in learning time will become more important to us as we begin to serve other product groups and run data mining against more data sets. SQL Server 2005 brings our data mining capabilities to a whole new level."

Aside from ABSi, different companies from various industries such as manufacturing, pharmaceutical, financial services, media and telecommunications have benefited from the successful project implementations, expertise and deep real-world experience of NTT DATA Philippines. With its deep commitment to deliver the most robust, efficient and scalable implementation of Microsoft technologies, NTT DATA Philippines formed a tie-up with Intel Corporation, the world's largest chip maker, for the hardware requirements of its technology solutions deployment.

Organized in 1999, NTT DATA Philippines joined the ranks of the most elite Microsoft Certified training organizations in the world when it gained its accreditation as the first Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Learning Solutions in Southeast Asia. It was likewise named Certified Partner for Learning Solutions of the Year by Microsoft Philippines last 2003 and 2004 and was accredited as the first and still the only Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Business Intelligence in the Philippines.