The Sears Business Centers Inc arm of Sears Roebuck & Co, the giant mail order and retail giant also known, rather unkindly, as the Littlewoods of America, is pushing ahead with its network integration efforts, and has created a team to specialise in network services and solutions. Sears already provides integration services, but Computer Systems News says that the new team is to focus on a target base of Fortune 2000 companies. The Hardware Services Group will offer project management, hardware installation, training, repair and network installation services, and support products like Token-Ring, LAN Manager and Novell Inc’s NetWare. Before establishing the separate group, Sears hardware products were serviced by by the same organisation that supports the company’s electronic and household items. However, some analysts suggest that the company, IBM’s partner on the Prodigy Systems Inc viewdata service, is aiming too high, and in view of its limited experience of large projects, the company may be better off focusing on low-end projects, initially at least.
