MCI (MCIAV) emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week with a mere $6 billion in debt, 27,000 fewer employees and cash in the bank.

President and CEO Michael Capellas likened MCI's past 20 months to "running a marathon with hurdles." With $6 billion in cash, MCI is "in a strong cash position," he says, trying to put a good face on otherwise dire financials.

According to the monthly reports MCI has had to file with the bankruptcy court, 2003 revenue was down 25% to $24 billion (the company reached $39 billion in 2000) and losses for the year were $58 million.

But the bankruptcy process helped MCI wipe more than $30 million worth of debt from its books.

By comparison, AT&T  finished 2003 with sales of $35 billion, profits of $1.9 billion, $4.3 billion in cash and investments, and $13 billion in debt.

Emerging from bankruptcy can only help MCI, but clearly it faces huge challenges. Here are how some interested parties add it up:

Building revenue

 "This is true for everyone, but it's MCI's No. 1 challenge," says David Rohde, senior analyst at TechCaliber Consulting. MCI has to lure traffic away from other carriers, especially with those MCI customers that have traffic with AT&T, Sprint or another carrier.

Keeping me happy

In an analyst call last week Capellas said MCI "wants to go after the enterprise and switch from being a farmer to a hunter," says Lisa Pierce, a vice president at consulting firm Forrester Research. But now might not be the best time to stop cultivating the crops.

"All of the other carriers are aggressively pursuing us," says Dan Agronow, vice president of technology at Weather.com in Atlanta. MCI has made concerted efforts to keep Weather.com happy through the troubled days, and Agronow says he hopes those efforts continue as MCI tries to win new customers.

"MCI's services have been excellent, and the sales support has been excellent," he says. "They need to keep that up while keeping competitors off."

Holding on to existing accounts will build confidence with potential customers, Agronow says. Building confidence is a big challenge for MCI.

Keeping up with the Joneses

 "MCI has done a good job in customer service but has done a poor job moving beyond that," Rohde says. "They still have a high expense structure, and their revenues are going down. They haven't kept up with competitors."

Whitepapers

• Best Practices for HP Servers and HP Enterprise Virtual Array in a Microsoft Exchange
• Network-Wide Change Management Visibility with Route Analytics
• REMOTE CONTROL: How to Reduce the Cost, Complexity and Risk of Managing Your Distributed IT Infrastructure
• Steal This Script: Hands-On Tips for Service Impact Network Management
• The Case for an Untethered Enterprise
• Best Practices for WAN Optimization with Data Replication

View more LANS & WANS whitepapers

Webcasts

• WAN Optimization Editorial Webcast
• Best Practices for Deploying WAN Optimization for Disaster Recovery
• Tips and Techniques for Remote Data Backup and Delivery
• WAN Optimization Landscape
• High Availability for SQL Server 2005 Using Array-Based Replication and Host-Based Mirroring Technologies
• Technical Overview of Exchange Server 2007 with HP Servers and Storage

View more LANS & WANS webcasts

Special Reports

• Network World Executive GUide: The Virtualization Equation
• Get More From Your WAN
• Learn how to Keep your Mobile Workforce Connected
• WAN Optimization: How to rev up sluggish applications
• The Wireless Explosion
• Network World Executive Guide: Perfecting Application Performance Management

View more LANS & WANS special reports