NEWS BRIEFS

Mountain View, CALIF. — Global Services announced several enhancements to its support services, resulting in more choices and increased flexibility for customers receiving support from SGI. These new offerings allow customers to obtain the type of support they need, whenever they need it – ranging from personal, on-site response to access via the Web.

“Customers have different support needs depending on their unique situations, so we’ve added streamlined support options that give customers comprehensive choices and the most flexibility in getting the support they need, when they need it,” says Jorge Helmer, senior vice president of Global Customer Services, SGI.

The new enhancements announced today include:

— SGI Knowledgebase, a sophisticated, self-service database – Now customers can get immediate answers to difficult problems by searching SGI’s new, comprehensive, intelligent Knowledgebase. Instead of phoning the support center, customers can type in a specific phrase or question via the Web and are quickly offered access to any solution ever written for that problem. Because the database is based on Primus associative search technology and is linked to SGI’s call-tracking system, every solution written during every support call is captured and published on the SGI Knowledgebase for all customers to access. The service is free to customers who have an existing support relationship with SGI, such as a warranty or a service contract.

— Expanded coverage options for Linux and IRIX operating systems support plans – As the only solutions provider with comprehensive hardware and software support plans for both IRIX and Linux OS-based systems, SGI has increased customer flexibility by allowing customers the ability to independently configure hours of hardware and software coverage through SGI FullExpress and FullCare support plans. Now, in addition to the standard coverage of five days per week, nine hours per day (5×9), customers can select from many coverage options – 5×12, 5×24, 7×9, 7×12, or 7×24 – for either hardware or software support.

— Mission-Critical Support for IRIX systems – SGI now offers Mission-Critical Support for IRIX systems in addition to the recently announced Mission-Critical Support for Linux systems. Mission-Critical Support provides coverage seven days per week, 24 hours per day for customers requiring constant availability of their computer systems. This proactive support program is delivered by support experts, who commit to on-site response within two hours and system restoration within six hours. Other features include proactive, preventative support from a designated technical account manager and SGI’s Embedded Support Partner (ESP), whereby customers’ systems are monitored daily to prevent issues before they arise.

SGI brings more than 15 years of experience solving difficult problems for the world’s most demanding customers to support both Linux and IRIX systems. With the addition of these new enhancements, SGI offers its customers the most comprehensive support for Linux and IRIX in the marketplace-including Mission-Critical Support and self-guided support using the SGI Knowledgebase.

For Linux, SGI has more than 200 engineers trained on the Linux operating system who provide on-site, telephone and online support to customers worldwide. Two additional support programs, CallPacks and WebPacks, are available on a per-incident support basis, offering even greater flexibility for Linux customers whose support needs are difficult to forecast.

CallPacks provide software telephone technical assistance on a per-incident basis for the Linux and Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems and selected SGI software products. WebPacks provide per-incident software support via a Web interface for the Linux operating system and selected SGI software products. Both CallPacks and WebPacks can be purchased in quantities of 5, 10 or 20 incidents, making them flexible and affordable.

SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their toughest computing problems. With more than 1,600 employees worldwide, SGI Global Services offers comprehensive Linux, IRIX and MIPS technology services, from system integration consulting services and robust support services to a full suite of customer education offerings. Linux OS-specific services from SGI include mission-critical services, per-incident CallPacks, value-added services, education courses and direct support for all major Linux distributions. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with offices worldwide, SGI is located on the Web at http://www.sgi.com .

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