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The Pros and Cons of PC Makers' Service Plans

If you like your PC vendor, you might like the idea of handing over all your support headaches to that company. After all, who knows hardware better than its manufacturer? But when it comes to doing business with old-guard computer makers, expect trade-offs.

On the plus side, major PC manufacturers have far broader hardware offerings than the take-it-or-leave-it desktop and laptop configurations provided by outsourced infrastructure providers such as CenterBeam and Everdream. And the PC companies may offer more complete IT services for some customers. Streamlined, easy-to-understand pricing and simple all-in-one support plans, however, are much harder to find.

Dell and IBM, for example, don't themselves offer packages that let you get a PC and service for one monthly service charge. Instead, they work with third-party leasing firms to devise payment plans for PCs and IT services. And leasing companies like Dell Financial Services (partially owned by Dell Computer) don't claim to offer the breadth of help desk services CenterBeam and Everdream provide.

Micron's Menu

Micronpc.com comes closer to the CenterBeam/Everdream approach. Its Subscription Computing program offers a veritable Chinese restaurant menu of system configurations and levels of IT services to choose from. Unlike CenterBeam and Everdream, which support only the systems they install, Micronpc.com will service any computer. But the company draws the line when it comes to performing complex tasks such as remote network management, data backup, and software distribution.

Gateway, meanwhile, is using its 300 Gateway Country retail outlets as regional support outposts for its business customers. Services include networking, Web and e-mail hosting, firewall protection, Internet connectivity, and application support. And as with Micron, pricing is based on an à la carte suite of options, not a one-package solution.

Will more PC manufacturers offer all-in-one IT outsourcing plans in the manner of start-ups like CenterBeam and Everdream? "Larger vendors are keeping a close eye on what these companies are doing," says John Madden, an analyst with Summit Strategies, pointing out that Hewlett-Packard and Dell have established relationships with Everdream and CenterBeam, respectively. Madden thinks the heavyweight hardware vendors will jump to capitalize on any success they see--and that it wouldn't take much for a vendor to rejigger its sales pitch to replicate the IT-in-a-box approach to selling PCs and services.

For now, however, you might find that it takes several days to get a monthly per-desktop price quote from one of the big guys that matches one of the package deals that CenterBeam or Everdream can put together in an hour.

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