DSG launches large UK tech support service
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(InfoWorld) - DSG International PLC, which operates electronics and computer stores throughout Europe, has launched a large customer support operation to capitalize on the increasing frustration of consumers with high-tech items. The service, called "The TechGuys," is running in the U.K. and will be expanded throughout Europe, but DSG did not give a specific time frame. DSG operates 1,450 stores in 27 countries under brands such as PC World, Currys and Dixons.co.uk. The company said it could invest up to Â£50 million (US$95 million) over the next five years, with up to 2,000 hires. The service would be available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Within the U.K., the service can handle 16,000 home visits per week. The cost of a tech service call was not immediately available. The service will provide support for home IT and audio and visual technology, DSG said. The TechGuys will run using a state-of-the-art call center, one of Europe's largest technical databases and a spare parts vault with 2 million components, DSG said. DSG said it commissioned a survey that found 79 percent of U.K. adults routinely need help with their tech purchases, with 43 percent waiting a week or longer for aid. The U.K. market for technical support services is estimated at Â£1 billion, DSG said.
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Technical support improvements lead to better overall scores for PC industry.
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Pair extend shared tech support services to dozens of markets.
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Britain's Vodafone Group Plc  will outsource application development and maintenance services globally to U.S.-based tech firms EDS  and IBM , the mobile phone giant said on Thursday.
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A routine software upgrade of Microsoft-based desktop computers led to the crash of around 40,000 machines at the UK government's Department for Work and Pensions last week.
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AUGUST 23, 2004  - The UK&#39;s largest satellite TV broadcaster sued Electronic Data Systems Corp. last week over a $109 million CRM development contract that was signed in late 2000 and then terminated two years ago.
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Vista to blame? 'Absolutely not' Retail mammoth DSG International (DSGi) looks set to spectacularly tumble out of the FTSE 100 today losing its status as one of the biggest PLCs in the UK.â¦
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IBM has won a $972 million, seven-year services contract to help move U.K. bank Lloyds TBS to a converged voice and data network that improves connectivity for more than 2,000 national branches and 4,200 ATMs.
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Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c46994)  has announced the addition of "Computer  Hardware in the United Kingdom" to their  offering.
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Systinet on Monday is releasing an upgrade of its UDDI-based business services registry that adds a configurable services console, advanced classification management, and publishing wizards for mapping and publishing of service data.
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Unisys announced new servers and a suite of infrastructure management software Tuesday that are aimed at giving it a bigger role to play in customers&#39; datacenters, where it will compete more directly with Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.The new hardware includes Unisys&#39; first blade servers, the ES5000 family, due next month, and new and upgraded ES3000 midrange servers based on quad-core Intel Xeon processors. The company has also refreshed and rebranded some datacenter management software that it launched early last year.The products continue a turnaround strategy that Unisys began in 2005. A focus on high-end servers, outsourcing and systems integration had led to financial losses, and Unisys devised a restructuring plan to enter faster-growing markets including open-source software, security and infrastructure management.The strategy leans heavily on partners. The blade servers will be supplied by another, unnamed server vendor and tagged with the Unisys brand, while the infrastructure software includes third-party products from Enigmatic and Scalent Systems.The strategy is to lead with services offerings to help customers build what Unisys calls a &quot;real-time infrastructure&quot; -- one where IT adapts quickly to business needs -- and to supplement those the hardware and software products, said Rich Marcello, president of Unisys&#39; systems and technology group.&quot;This isn&#39;t just a product sell. The real-time infrastructure is relatively complicated to implement so you need a services-led strategy,&quot; he said. &quot;Many of our competitors will talk about doing RTI but what they are doing is trying to sell you a complete stack.&quot;Unisys&#39; product line-up is not greatly different from that of Sun, HP and others. But its strategy differs in that it aims to capture clients through consulting and service engagements and then bring in the products they need for a project, including gear from other vendors, said Jean Bozman [cq], a research vice president with IDC.&quot;They&#39;re not saying their value is to deliver everything with a Unisys label. Their value is to leverage their experience with customer engagements to bring products together and make sure they all work as part of an overall solution,&quot; Bozman said.The new infrastructure management suite piggy-backs on the trend of helping customers align their IT infrastructures to business requirements. This includes using virtualization and systems management software to reallocate computing resources to meet changing workloads.Called the Unisys Infrastructure Management Suite it includes three parts: uAdapt, for shifting workloads between servers to get better rates of utilization; uOrchestrate, for automating processes and meeting service-level agreements; and uChargeback, which lets big companies measure server usage and charge individual departments for computing services they use, Marcello said.Unisys announced some infrastructure management software early last year, including a home-grown product called Enterprise Orchestration. That product has been &quot;superseded&quot; by uOrchestrate, which is based on software from Enigmatic. UChargeback is a rebranded version of last year&#39;s Real Time Chargeback, and uAdapt is a new offering based on software from Scalent Systems.The three products work with any hardware platform running Windows, Linux, or Unix, and all are certified to run VMware&#39;s virtualization technology. UAdapt and uOrchestrate also work with Citrix Systems&#39; Xen virtualization technology, and uChargeback will be certified for Xen shortly, a Unisys spokesman said.The blade servers will come with &quot;flexible I/O configuration options and advanced local and remote management interfaces,&quot; Unisys said. The company also plans to expand its high-end ES7000 line with a quad core, eight-processor server due in the second quarter. Later this year it will introduce brand new ES7000 models from a partnership with Japan&#39;s NEC.&#160;
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DNSstuff.com, a global leader in DNS knowledge and tools with one of the largest communities of IT professionals on the Web, today announced that it has begun offering members automated access to its DNS-related tools.
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Electrical retailer DSG says it is ready for Christmas trading as it reports a 5% rise in sales over the past six months.
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Company uses proprietary technology to create high-capacity server memory module.
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IBM , the world's largest  technology services company, on Tuesday is announcing new  server computers giving businesses access to computing power  typically used by universities and large corporations.
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A team of tech-savvy but patient experts in their 50s and 60s has been set up to offer consultancy for Japan's growing number of elderly small business owners on their computer needs, the Japanese arm of IBM said.
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The company is opening a technology center in France to showcase how mainframes can be used for back-office tasks such as account reconciliation and funds tracking.