2009 News Archive

Charlotte North Carolina, (November 19, 2009) - SMS has completed its purchase of the hardware maintenance division of Top Gun Technology, effective November 19, and merged it with their organization. Top Gun Technology will continue to exist as a separate business, and offer both refurbished hardware and software support services.

Joel Owens, President, IBM Enterprise Division, will be responsible for sales growth within the IBM platform, client satisfaction and the quality of service for all IBM maintenance accounts.

Charlotte North Carolina, (September 22, 2009) - SMS has agreed to buy substantially all of the assets of the Data Center Maintenance business of QSGI. This purchase expands SMSs geographic presence and maintenance support capabilities for IBM zSeries, pSeries, iSeries and related peripheral equipment.

This deal significantly enhances SMSs enterprise-support capabilities on IBM platforms while making our multi-vendor strengths available to QSGIs customers." said Don Doctor, SMS's chairman and chief executive.

SMS provides unequalled, highly responsive, multi-vendor service and asset life cycle support to every major market in the U.S. Continues Doctor, With 41 service locations across the United States, each staffed with engineering professionals, SMS is well prepared to provide cost effective service and support to the many customers previously serviced by QSGI.

Founded in 1981, SMS is a leading provider of responsive, independent maintenance services that reduce the high cost of IT equipment maintenance. SMS is a rapid response Service Maintenance Integrator, specializing in multi-vendor maintenance services, short- and long-term consulting engagements, data center migrations, and asset life cycle management. SMS has more than 1,500 hardware maintenance clients, many of which are Fortune 1000.

Charlotte, North Carolina, (September 22, 2009) SMS - Systems Maintenance Services, Inc. and Top Gun Technology, Inc. have reached a definitive agreement to merge their organizations. Management of both companies expect the merger to be completed within the next 30 days.

This acquisition provides SMS with a deeper level of technical expertise and service delivery in the support of large-platform IBM hardware, Said Joe Scordino, President of SMS.  SMS and Top Gun Technology have had a highly successful teaming agreement in place for nearly 18 months, where Top Gun Technology provides seamless back-end support for the IBM platforms we maintain at more than 100 accounts. Both companies have invested greatly to ensure that teams infrastructure and service model are complimentary to one another and provide clients the best possible service model in the industry.

Top Gun Technology has built its expertise with a focus solely on IBM hardware such as zSeries mainframes, pSeries servers, iSeries servers and attachable IBM storage/connectivity peripherals, Scordino continued . This independent expertise is highly regarded by our existing clients in the Fortune 1000.

All existing Top Gun Technology maintenance clients will now have the ability to receive full-service maintenance for all other Unix/Wintel-based IT hardware from a merged and stronger team, stated Joel Owens, President and Chief Executive of Top Gun Technology. In addition, clients will be provided access to SinglePoint, a leading-edge asset life cycle management portal developed by SMS which helps manage and reduce the total cost of ownership for all data center hardware assets.

Top Gun Technology Services, Inc. will continue to sell refurbished IBM hardware and provide software support for systems z, p and i environments. Its offices will remain in Prior Lake, Minnesota.

ABOUT SMS:

Founded in 1981, SMS is a leading provider of responsive, independent maintenance services that reduce the high cost of IT equipment maintenance. SMS is a rapid response Service Maintenance Integrator, specializing in multi-vendor maintenance services, short- and long-term consulting engagements, data center migrations, and asset life cycle management. SMS has more than 1,500 hardware maintenance clients, many of which are Fortune 1000.

ABOUT TOP GUN TECHNOLOGY:

Top Gun Technology has a worldwide reputation for its expertise in IBM hardware and support. It is relied upon by data center managers, IT outsourcers, leasing companies and hardware wholesalers for its detailed technical knowledge of all large-platform IBM hardware, software support and technical requirements to maintain production and minimize IT expenses.

Phoenix,  Arizona, and San Diego, California The opening of this service center adds another component to our strategy of a guaranteed four hour delivery response times to every major market in the United States. 

"Customer satisfaction is the key to every office we open," said Jim Kleeman, Executive Vice President of SMS. "This service center increases our coverage in the San Diego market and allows us to better serve our customers throughout southern California."  This is SMS's fifth new center to open in 2009.

Bill Swansen, General Manager of the Southwest Region, said, "We opened our San Diego Service Center because of the new San Diego customers who see a distinct advantage to our responsive, cost effective, multi-vendor maintenance services.   With the OEM's reducing service levels we are hiring the best engineers available anywhere.  This strengthens our relationships with our local, as well as our national customers."
 

Charlotte, North Carolina All SMS locations are operating normally and have entered a heightened awareness phase as part of the companys Pandemic Plan in response to the World Health Organization (WHO) Stage 5 announcements concerning the H1N1 flu (swine flu).

"This plan describes how SMS will operate as a 7x24x365 day mission critical service company in the event of an outbreak or elevated count of influenza A (H1N1) virus. The plan has been updated to ensure that essential business functions remain viable and  protect the continuity of our mission critical, multi-vendor, and enterprise customers, said Joe Scordino, President of SMS.

SMS is prepared to provide information to customers about the situation and are prepared for possible scenarios. SMS will keep customers informed of any significant changes in our preparations or actions to deal with this issue.

Greg Hoogerland, Chief Technology Officer of SMS, details, We continue to monitor the status of the swine flu outbreak against thresholds we have established, based on prior norms of SMS business operations. Should events escalate towards any of those thresholds, SMS is prepared to take more aggressive measures to protect continuity and logistics integrity."

The SMS H1N1 preparedness plan is available for review with our customers.

Jim Kleeman, Executive Vice President of SMS, states, "This builds on our strategy of expanding into every major market in the U.S. We are always enhancing our reputation for responsive, highly technical enterprise support.  This is our fourth new center in 2009."

Nigel Hauck, General Manager of the Texas Region, says, "We opened our Austin Service Center because of the new Texas customers who are embracing our responsive, cost effective maintenance and flexible support services.   With the OEM's cutting their staff we are hiring the best engineers available anywhere.  This only strengthens our relationships with our local as well as our national customers."

Vince Cavell, Executive Vice President of SMS, states, "In our industry, customer satisfaction and rapid response times are a very tightly coupled value proposition.  We opened the Dover facility because our national customers needed SMS engineering talent locally for us to achieve the Service Levels they need to run their business.  Our eastern seaboard coverage is now the best in the industry."

Gary Wielgoszinski, General Manager of the New York Region, says, "We opened our Dover Service Center because of customer demand for our high quality, cost effective maintenance services." Continues Gary, "With our hands on engineering staff in Dover to complement our call center in Charlotte and engineering center in New York, we have the technicians, the reach and the parts to meet the needs of the most demanding customers."

Vince Cavell, Senior Vice President of SMS, states, "This continues our strategy of expanding into every major market in the U.S. In addition to bringing new jobs to the Buffalo area, we are continuing to build upon our reputation for responsive, highly technical enterprise support that is 'close to the customer.' This is our second new center in 2009."

Johnny Walker, General Manager of the New York Region, says, "We opened our Buffalo Service Center because our customers needed to expand their service relationship with SMS across our all our national locations." Continues Johnny, "With our hands on engineering staff in Buffalo to complement our call center in Charlotte, SMS delivers the most responsive, technically excellent, support in all of Western New York."

Joe Scordino, President of SMS, states, "This continues our strategy of expanding into every major market in the U.S. In 2008 we opened 4 new service and engineering centers in order to meet the ever growing needs of our customer base. This is our first new center in 2009."

Doug MacKay, General Manager of the Carolinas Region says, "We opened our Raleigh Service Center because our customers want to expand their service relationship with SMS across our all our national locations." Continues Doug, "Raleigh is a big step forward for SMS Carolinas. With our call center in Charlotte, and our service center in Raleigh, we are the most responsive, technically excellent, support provider in the Carolinas."

Rich Hornung, Service Manager adds: "The Raleigh engineering center opens with some key engineering talent that is critical to our customer satisfaction goals."