• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Big Blue Offers U.S. Companies U.S.-Only Support

    June 22, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Nationalism creeps into the computer business from funny angles. Who made the processors, memory, and disk drives in computers used to matter back in the 1970s and 1980s, and then when we moved to more global manufacturing in the 1990s, the name on the label of the machine and where the sales office was seemed to matter more, with the possible exception of supercomputing, where national security issues hold sway. With so much of the tech support now outsourced to India, and unemployment running high, support is now a hot button politically, and we all know how Big Blue doesn’t want to annoy Uncle Sam as it pushes its “smart infrastructure” agenda.

    To that end, IBM last week announced that starting on October 1, it will start offering something called Software Secure Support Via USA Citizens. This support option certifies that support for IBM’s software products (and any other software that the company offers support for) will be done exclusively by U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and that any data analysis and call center data will be contained in an isolated network maintained by IBM in a facility that meets the security specifications of the U.S. government. (Presumably this facility will also be on U.S. soil, by which IBM presumably does not mean Guam or Puerto Rico or the Marianas, but somewhere in the 50 states.)

    The Made-in-the-States support offering is available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday excepting IBM and government holidays, and it must cost more than standard service or IBM wouldn’t bother selling it. In the event that an issue comes up outside of these hours of operation, IBM’s Passport Advantage or Operational Support Services (SoftwareXcel) support services, which are not “secure,” meaning backed up by outsourced employees I presume, take over. The stateside service offering is being made available to commercial as well as Federal government customers, but it could turn out that state and local governments take an interest in Buy American when it comes to support and they demand coverage as well. You can find out some more details on the service here.

    RELATED STORIES

    Infrastructure Business Monopoly

    As I See It: Smarten Up

    IBM Gets Hybrid with Servers, Talks Up BAO Boxes

    Getting Dizzy from Dynamic Infrastructure

    IBM’s Dynamic Infrastructure Announcement Blitz

    IBM’s Plan for an Adjacent, Custom Systems Market

    The IBM Systems Agenda: iB(M)

    international Business (machines)



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 18, Number 24 -- June 22, 2009

    Sponsored by
    WorksRight Software

    Do you need area code information?
    Do you need ZIP Code information?
    Do you need ZIP+4 information?
    Do you need city name information?
    Do you need county information?
    Do you need a nearest dealer locator system?

    We can HELP! We have affordable AS/400 software and data to do all of the above. Whether you need a simple city name retrieval system or a sophisticated CASS postal coding system, we have it for you!

    The ZIP/CITY system is based on 5-digit ZIP Codes. You can retrieve city names, state names, county names, area codes, time zones, latitude, longitude, and more just by knowing the ZIP Code. We supply information on all the latest area code changes. A nearest dealer locator function is also included. ZIP/CITY includes software, data, monthly updates, and unlimited support. The cost is $495 per year.

    PER/ZIP4 is a sophisticated CASS certified postal coding system for assigning ZIP Codes, ZIP+4, carrier route, and delivery point codes. PER/ZIP4 also provides county names and FIPS codes. PER/ZIP4 can be used interactively, in batch, and with callable programs. PER/ZIP4 includes software, data, monthly updates, and unlimited support. The cost is $3,900 for the first year, and $1,950 for renewal.

    Just call us and we’ll arrange for 30 days FREE use of either ZIP/CITY or PER/ZIP4.

    WorksRight Software, Inc.
    Phone: 601-856-8337
    Fax: 601-856-9432
    Email: software@worksright.com
    Website: www.worksright.com

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: A Simple Save While Active Backup Program IBM to Offer Free EGL Tool for Web 2.0

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 18 Issue: 24

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • AS/400: Still Kicking After 21 Years
    • Power Systems i Weather Report: Partly Cloudy Soon
    • IBM i Manifest Takes Root in Japan
    • Help Wanted: AS/400 Advocate
    • COMMON Europe: Doing the Math on Top i Concerns
    • : A Community of Common Interest
    • IDC Forecasts Server Sales Declines Until 2011; Blame X64 Boxes
    • Big Blue Offers U.S. Companies U.S.-Only Support
    • IBM Office Suite Takes a Whack at Microsoft Licensing Albatross
    • Custom Tailored Solutions for the Crisis Prone

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • The Power11 Transistor Count Discrepancies Explained – Sort Of
    • Is Your IBM i HA/DR Actually Tested – Or Just Installed?
    • Big Blue Delivers IBM i Customer Requests In ACS Update
    • New DbToo SDK Hooks RPG And Db2 For i To External Services
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 33
    • Tool Aims To Streamline Git Integration For Old School IBM i Devs
    • IBM To Add Full System Replication And FlashCopy To PowerHA
    • Guru: Decoding Base64 ASCII
    • The Price Tweaking Continues For Power Systems
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Numbers 31 And 32

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle