IDC's Software and Hardware Support Services research assists software and hardware vendors in developing, marketing, and delivering support services. By subscribing to this service, clients gain greater insight into best practices, competitive positioning, and strategies for using support services to help drive technology sales.

This service covers the following segments of the software and hardware support services market:

• Software and hardware support offerings
• High-availability and mission-critical support services
• Channel and partnering strategies
• Multivendor support services
• Electronic and esupport strategies
• Hardware service markets by product category
• Software support service by software segment
• Preventative and proactive maintenance and support

Throughout the year, this service will address the following topics:

• Worldwide software and hardware support services market size
• The impact of new technology on support services requirements
• Competitive profiles of technology providers' support services offerings
• Vendor strategies for support
• Best practices in the support services market
• Service models for premium and multivendor support
• Trends in basic support services

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

1. What are the best-in-class elements of support programs?
2. What will be the critical skills, systems and tools, organizational structures, and marketing strategies for delivering superior software and hardware support services?
3. How will new technologies affect the software and hardware support market?
4. How can technology providers use support services as a competitive differentiator?

IDC's Software and Hardware Support Services research examines how software and hardware support service providers are positioning themselves to compete in the software and hardware support market. This service reviews the services strategies, market positioning, and future direction of major and emerging software and hardware support service providers. Companies covered include:

Accenture, Avaya, Computer Associates, Dell, EDS, EMC, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Microsoft, NCR, Nortel, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, SAP, Siebel, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Symantec, Toshiba, Unisys, VERITAS, and VMware.

This service focuses on the following core research. In addition to the insight provided in this service, IDC may conduct additional research on specific topics, or emerging market segments, via research offerings that require additional IDC funding and client investment.

This study sizes spending on software support services by type of software, type of service, region, and operating environment over a five-year forecast period. In addition, it discusses successful support service offering elements and general support market dynamics.

This study sizes spending on hardware support services by product category and region over a five-year forecast period. In addition, it discusses successful support service offering elements and general support market dynamics.

This study investigates the evolution of network equipment support services. It focuses on how the business model for providing support services for networking equipment will change as networking and IT continue to converge.

This study sizes the spending on x86/x64 support services over a five-year forecast period. In addition, the study discusses important trends that are driving system support, provides key strategic recommendations, and profiles the market leaders in x86/x64 systems.

IDC offers a complete market intelligence solution customized to meet your business requirements. The array of products and services available to you includes:

• The opportunity to have your specific questions answered through personal interaction with industry experts who cover the topics and markets in your service
• Around-the-clock access to our market intelligence on idc.com, IDC's personalized Web experience
• A view of the market's future with 12 months of continuous intelligence about its direction and the reasons behind it, along with actionable advice for taking advantage of existing and emerging opportunities
• Special client discount pricing on purchases of research from other services
• Complimentary admission to IDC's annual Directions conference, where you'll hear our latest forecasts and network with IDC analysts and other industry professionals
• Complimentary invitations to monthly executive telebriefings, interactive forums designed to provide you with insights about research and strategies directly from IDC analysts

To find out how our flexible packaging options can meet your specific business needs, please contact your IDC sales executive.

As a privately held company, IDC believes that our customers are our primary constituency. A large percentage of every revenue dollar is reinvested back into our products, including more analysts, more geographic coverage, and extensive primary research.

Our steady growth over the past 10-plus years reflects our commitment to investing in our customers.