Sun rental is of Paramount importance

Paramount Rentals has beaten three of its rivals to a Sun Microsystems loan rental contract worth #2.5 million, but has failed to land the longer term agreements on offer.

The company has also expanded its operation to the Continent by opening an office in Amsterdam, as part of its plans to become a pan-European computer rental firm.

Parry Mitchell, Paramount chairman, said the company had beaten Livingston Rentals, Hamilton and ATS Technirent because it offered a ?superior quality of service? to that of its competitors. He added that the contract, which has a billing value of #200,000 a month, would increase its revenues by a third to an annual turnover of about #9 million.

But Harry Scott, director of the computer rental business at rival Livingston, claimed that his company and ATS, would be providing the rentals for longer term contracts with Sun.

?[The vendor] invited several companies to bid for the services element and Paramount has won the short-term end of the contract ? a week or two weeks at a time.?

For short and long-term contracts, Sun will outsource rental to the relevant company, which will provide the appropriately configured server and bill Sun for the service.

Paramount will concentrate initially on the rental of Silicon Graphics computer systems. Mitchell said it expects to open offices in Germany and France within six to nine months.