Datagate, Inc. Company Statistics Company: Datagate, Inc. Location: Milpitas, California Founded: 1978 CEO: Jeff Hall 1991 Revenues: N/A 1991 Service Revenues: N/A Service Employees: 75 Products Datagate, Inc. services and repairs Hewlett-Packard computer and instrumentation systems, including Vectra PCs, HP 9000 workstations, HP 3000 minicomputers and many older HP products. It also services non-HP peripherals. Datagate buys and sells refurbished HP equipment, with special emphasis on out-of-production items to users facing upgrades or add-ons. They also purchase commonly used supplies manufactured to original specifications for resale to their customers. Service Mission/Target Market MULTIVENDOR SERVICES Datagate is a third-party maintenance organization focused exclusively on users of HP computers and HP instrumentation products. They offer both on-site maintenance and depot repair worldwide. Datagate's mission is to provide HP customers with complete service, regardless of the age of the system, on both HP products and non-HP peripherals to give the customer the benefit of single-source support. They claim never to have refused a service contract on any HP equipment because of its age, and will provide the customer with five years' notice before withdrawing service if required. Systems can be maintained at any revision level to enable the most effective running of the customer's application. Service Offerings MULTIVENDOR SERVICES The two primary modes of service provided by Datagate are depot repair and on-site maintenance. Depot Repair Depot repair facilities offer component-level repair, exchange, ECO modifications and testing. Repair is available for printed circuit boards or complete units such as computers, disk drives, tapes, and a wide assortment of peripherals. Direct Exchange is available for selected boards. The annual maintenance contract includes diagnosis and repair, all parts, labor, testing and return freight. There is a 90-day warranty on all repairs, covering not just the repair, but the entire board or unit. The unit will automatically be brought up to the latest revision unless otherwise specified. Every repaired item is fully tested in its normal configuration with varying voltage and temperatures for a minimum of 96 hours before it is returned. Even with this stringent testing, turnaround is ten days or less. On-Site Repair Datagate's Field Service organization provides on-site contract maintenance services. On-site technicians are supported by senior engineers at the corporate office. Standard service hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The range of guaranteed response times is from 48 hours to two hours. Maintenance is provided at any level or configuration. A full- maintenance service program includes: o On-site preventive maintenance o On-site remedial maintenance o Installation of manufacturer-approved engineering improvements o Environmental site surveys o Maintenance site log program o Work to completion o Account management Service Delivery MULTIVENDOR SERVICES Datagate has engineering staffs in 24 offices across the United States, Europe and the Far East. The technical support center is in San Jose, California. Service delivery is carried out by Datagate's 75 employees. Datagate currently has offices in major metropolitan areas across the United States. Its corporate office is located in Milpitas, California. The facility houses the following departments: o Central Dispatch: The Central Dispatch Department is responsible for the positive control of all service requests. Central Dispatch operators receive U.S. service calls and contact the appropriate service engineer, who will then contact the customer within 30 minutes. Escalation procedures mandate that the National Field Service Manager be notified for any maintenance call that exceeds 12 hours. If the assistance of the OEM is required, Datagate assumes all costs. o Technical Support: Available for telephone consultation as well as on-site assistance, the Technical Support Department is staffed by highly qualified senior engineers who can consult with field engineers should they be needed. Technical support makes use of equipment hot-mockup and an extensive collection of documentation in diagnosing system failures. Additionally, Technical Support assures that field engineers receive the latest in documentation, service notes and diagnostics. o Preventive Maintenance: Preventive Maintenance is performed on a regularly scheduled basis. Frequency is a function of the use and environment in which the system operates, coupled with the desire and needs of the customer. Evening scheduling is available. o Remedial Maintenance: Inventories of spares at the corporate, regional, district and site levels are coupled with technical support to minimize customer downtime. In some cases, Datagate service engineers may repair a system by installing a like unit to provide decreased downtime. Like unit swapping requires customer approval prior to installation. All hardware and software updates also require customer approval. Datagate currently maintains field support offices in the United States, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is the company's intention to establish site locations in all major cities throughout the United States. Service Marketing/Pricing MULTIVENDOR SERVICES Datagate focuses specifically on Hewlett-Packard users located in the major metropolitan areas across the United States. Datagate has streamlined their expertise and is able to offer high quality service at a decreased rate. Datagate's annual contract fees are based on the equipment to be maintained. Datagate suggests that the price of their services is 25% less than those offered by Hewlett-Packard. Prices are fixed for the length of the contract, which may be for one year or more. Perception/Evaluation MULTIVENDOR SERVICES Datagate is a relatively small third-party maintainer with a strong market niche - high quality, low priced repair of Hewlett-Packard products. Their focus on providing and maintaining older equipment would prove to be attractive to smaller end users who do not have the need or financial ability to upgrade systems frequently. This focus, coupled with low prices, may also attract new, larger accounts during recessionary times when MIS budgets are being scrutinized closely.