IBM (News - Alert) recently revealed a new deal that will see its support outsourced, meaning both staff and consumers will be dealing with a third-party desktop support service. IBM’s new deal is worth about $52 million and will see its global services backed up by one firm, although other IT support companies are likely to be brought into the mix further down the line.

IBM spokesperson, Mark Thomas, said there is currently an ongoing consultation taking place in the U.K. so the company can determine an appropriate support provider for its British operations. One of the seasons IBM has turned to third-party support is to enhance its profitability and secure a better level of service for its employees and clients.

The logistical challenge of operating IT support can sometimes be overwhelming, even for large firms. Third-party IT maintenance service providers are gaining momentum in the industry as companies such as IBM realize the benefits of them and consumers turn to them for low costs and flexibility. When turning to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), many people may choose to go in a different direction because of expensive prices, lack of immediate customer support or flexibility for billing or contracts. Other main reasons entities turn to alternative vendors are because usable equipment has reached OEMs’ End-of-Support (EOS) and the service level agreements (SLAs) are not being met for legacy gear.

Alternative service providers such as XS International offer all-in-one IT maintenance solutions for manufacturers such as Cisco (News - Alert), Enterasys, SGI, Juniper, HP, Dell, Brocade, IBM, F5 Networks, Sun/Oracle and Hitachi. It covers current and end-of-life IBM models, including IBM Power Systems, IBM System z Mainframe, IBM System x (xSeries), IBM BladeCenter and IBM Networking.

In business since 1990, XS International, Inc. is a U.S. Federal Contractor (with security clearance personnel), state, local, universities and commercial provider of information technologies including high-performance computer clusters (HPC) systems, enterprise servers and networking, IT service management and professional services.

XS International also offers an alternative solution to Cisco’s SMARTnet support service. The solution offers value-added benefits and services such as contract flexibilities, simple contract management, payment flexibilities, cost reductions, Tier 4 escalation to the OEM, customer-tailored reporting and more.

Customers can reduce the cost of technology ownership by up to 40 percent with XS International’s solutions. Benefits include worldwide support, support for end-of-life equipment, 65,000 maintenance SKUs on its GSA (News - Alert) schedule, alternative and OEM maintenance blended under the same contract and more than 20 years of performance history. 

To learn more about how you can save and benefit from XS International’s alternative IT maintenance solutions, click here.

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