ICL signs deals to up online support

IT services company ICL has unveiled plans to grow its e-infrastructure services arm, including a £45m investment in software applications.

IT services company ICL has unveiled plans to grow its e-infrastructure services arm, including a £45m investment in software applications.

The company has signed agreements with Computer Associates (CA), Peregrine Systems and Quintus to enhance online support for its customers.

Resellers should not feel threatened by the deal, said Alan Furness, marketing manager for IT infrastructure management at ICL, even though the services will be sold direct to customers and not through the channel.

"We're aiming at a different market to resellers," he said. "Our main targets are the big organisations with 5000 to 10,000 users, and the only companies that we want to feel threatened are those such as IBM and Cap Gemini."

ICL's agreements are planned to extend its ability to provide managed services in enterprise management, employee self-service and end user support.

The result is a three-pronged applications service for customers, according to the company. First, employees will be able to access support online when obtaining goods and services through Peregrine's Get.IT applications.

Second, online interaction with the helpdesk service through the Quintus eContact suite means support can be delivered to employees and users via voice, email, web chat and the internet.

Finally, technology from CA and Peregrine can be used for remote asset management. Software from CA will monitor the infrastructure and collect and deliver asset information to Peregrine's asset centre. Both firms will compile a detailed lifecycle of the assets to ensure they keep benefiting the client.

"We are using this technology to put together a very slick delivery model," said Furness. "Working closely with Quintus, CA and Peregrine, we have integrated their software with our process framework to create a service model that can be rapidly deployed across the world."

Resellers offering similar services don't compare with ICL's service to clients, he claimed.

First published in Computer Reseller News