DELL IRELAND has won a three-year managed-services contract with Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) which will see it manage and support 1,400 PCs in Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports.
It is understood to be a multi-million euro deal, although Dell declined to comment on its value.
Dell won the contract following a competitive tender process, and as part of the deal recently completed a major PC upgrade project for the DAA.
Although primarily known as a PC manufacturer, globally Dell has been moving more into services which provide recurring revenues rather than one-off hardware sales.
Dermot O’Connell, general manager of Dell Ireland, said the computer-maker had first built up support services around its hardware sales, then moved into infrastructure services around networking and storage, and was now offering customers a full managed service.
“The DAA is the first major one we have been able to announce in Ireland,” said Mr O’Connell.
There was too main elements to the contract; first standardising the IT environment and then taking over the DAA’s service desk.
Dell upgraded the software on 850 PCs and provided 420 new desktop PCs.
All machines now run Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 and full staff training was provided in the new software.
Instant messaging using Microsoft Office Communication Suite was also implemented to improve internal communication.
Staff from Dell man the helpdesk in Dublin airport where support calls from users in all three airports are handled. A management infrastructure based on Microsoft’s System Centre Suite means much of the support can be handled remotely and proactive repairs can be carried out before failures occur.
“We know more about airports now than we thought we ever would,” laughed O’Connell.
“For example, there are PCs at the stands which print out the final passenger list which are mission critical. There’s a very short turnaround to get these fixed but by standardising it is very easy to swap and replace them.”
While Dell has lost its number one position in the Irish PC market following its decision in January to close manufacturing in Limerick with the loss of 1,900 jobs, Mr O’Connell says there is a lot of interest in its managed services.
“There is a lot of interest in the corporate sector because people are looking at how to take costs out of their business.”
