IT Support Services for Legacy Systems - A lasting legacy, for now anyway

If resellers can help companies through tough economic times by prolonging the life of their existing IT infrastructure, hopefully they will remain loyal when the situation improves

Every time I pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV or view a news website it is all doom and gloom, with nothing but credit crunch, recession, redundancies and repossessions repeatedly drilled into us day after day, week after week.

We are very good in the UK at talking ourselves into a downturn but fortunately we are also very resilient and flexible in adapting to a change in our situation.

If there was a time when we needed to focus on more positive issues it must be now. No, I am not wearing rose-tinted spectacles, but simply realise that the cogs need to continue to turn and business needs to battle through these challenging times.

Like many other industries in  this economic downturn, the IT world is also suffering. Customers are reducing their budgets across all areas of IT including hardware, software, installations and support.

Resellers are going to be faced with some difficult decisions, especially those who specialise solely in the sale of hardware. These resellers are going to have to address new routes to market by identifying the key issues facing their customers.

I feel that organisations will favour resellers who can assist them in prolonging the life of their existing IT infrastructure as they look to reduce their network costs.

When supporting legacy equipment it is important to have access to a wide range of skill sets across a multi-vendor environment. Even though the majority of legacy devices remain around five years old, there is a significant amount that are more than 10 years old, and the core competencies needed to support them can be difficult to find.

Outsourcing these services to a specialist channel network provider such as Comms-care can eliminate many of the headaches involved in providing this level of support to your customers.

Looking ahead, it is important to realise that in these difficult times you have inherited not only a network of legacy devices but an opportunity to differentiate yourselves from the competition.

Ben Davies, Sales Director, Comms-care

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