The Environment Agency is expanding the capabilities of its call centre and extending its use of customer relationship management (CRM) technologies to create an end-to-end view of enquiries from the public. The government agency built a national call centre in the summer of last year with IBM and is now looking to expand its use. Liz Buckle, head of customer contact at the Environment Agency, explained: "We identified that we wanted to improve our direct contact with customers. We decided to deliver a national customer call centre to be a front office for the organisation, especially in terms of information requests and licensing and permits.

Oil firm Total has introduced new helpdesk software to allow its UK operations to deal more efficiently with customer complaints and iron out logistics problems. Total UK introduced a national helpdesk system from Remedy that centralised the management of calls received throughout its organisations. For the first time this allowed the oil company accurately to measure its performance against its service level agreements (SLAs).

AT&T Business Internet Service offers a single integrated remote access solution for the Government's End Users. AT&T offers flexible analog speeds up to with ISDN. The remote client configuration feature has the ability to automatically configure the Netscape and Microsoft browser and e-mail programs provided with AT&T's dial access kit. Helpdesk support is provided. The Help Desk is generally available to receive the Government's calls 24x7. The help desk provides assistance with connectivity, configuration and service.

A website set up last week to act as a forum for ex-employees of Time and Tiny Computers, and as an unofficial helpdesk for customers of the company, closed down in mysterious circumstances on Monday afternoon. A stark notice on the website, Tinycon.com, blames lawyers acting on behalf of the company's administrators, Grant Thornton, for the sudden shut down. Matt Ashworth, who, until the demise of Time, worked in the company's sales office, said: "I got a call from the company lawyers who told us to take it down. They said they were acting for the administrators. I refused and the next thing I knew the site had been taken down - I assume it was the hosting company."

The London Borough of Hackney has put a £10m IT outsourcing deal up for grabs as part of the retendering process for its current contract with Northgate Information Solutions. The five-year Northgate contract will be completed at the end of this year and Hackney Council is looking for between five and 10 IT companies to bid for the deal.

Barclays Bank has said up to 140 jobs will be affected as it moves its internal UK helpdesk to India. The bank will try to re-deploy workers before offering them redundancy packages when the technical support centre is transplanted from Cheshire to Mumbai. Hilary McVitty, head of PR for Barclays, said: "It's premature to say that it will result in 140 job losses. We have been involved in selective outsourcing, which isn't always offshore. In this case it is."

Innovative Computer Engineering Limited (ICE) can also provide ad-hoc or project based Computer Support Services for small businesses based in Cheshire and Greater Manchester. Our services were designed to take the hassle out of Information Technology solutions, leaving you free to concentrate on your core business competencies. Our Computer Services include: Computer Support, Computer Consultancy, Computer Software Updates, Computer Backup & Disaster Recovery, Computer Installation, Computer Network Design.

Maryland legislators have approved a new tax on computer services. The state's decision to add computer services to the state's new 6% tax rate, which takes effect in January, has raised the ire of computing industry representatives. The measure increases sales tax by 1% and adds computer support services, data center support, custom programming, consulting, and disaster recovery services to the list. Legislators approved the change as part of a tax package they passed early Monday morning.

Refers to objects that you can actually touch, like disks, disk drives, display screens, keyboards, printers, boards, and chips. In contrast, software is untouchable. Software exists as ideas, concepts, and symbols, but it has no substance.

A growing number of digital media buffs are using a PC as the hub of a home entertainment system, and Logitech wants them to listen up: The company's Z Cinema speaker system delivers movie soundtracks and dialog, explosive gaming audio, and other audio with home-theater quality using just two satellites and a subwoofer.