MCI Soups Up Business Customer Portal

The MCI Customer Center (MCC) now sports a new look and feel that's designed to make it easier for business clients to manage accounts and the performance of their data, voice and IP networks, said Mark Chodoronek, senior director of e-management at MCI, Ashburn, Va.

New MCC features include private IP WAN analysis and a range of different languages, Chodoronek said. In the coming weeks, MCI plans to add trouble ticket summarization to the center, and in the coming months, the company aims to enable network monitoring through the porting of popular IT management software such as Hewlett-Packard's OpenView and BMC's Patrol, he said.

MCI also is working on ways to allow VARs to co-brand dashboards for MCC customers, which include business of all types and sizes, Chodoronek said. "We have customers that use the portal who are small-business customers all the way up to the largest government offices and enterprises," he said.

Basic portal functions are free to all MCI business customers, while certain network management features and Web services carry fees ranging between $50 and $200.

In addition, MCI has integrated the monitoring of its new Private IP Service to the MCC, Chodoronek said.