Lotus Development Corp has announced the formation of the US-based Technical Support Alliance Network, TSANet, which is intended to resolve issues of multi-vendor customer support. Lotus says that it has gained support from more than 100 companies, including Apple Computer Inc, Banyan Systems Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp, Compaq Computer Corp and Novell Inc. Although it is initially to serve only the US, Lotus says that it hopes to expand the group internationally once it is fully established. The group has wider ranging aims that the Networking Technical Support Alliance announced in May: not only does it hope to resolve issues of support, but the member companies will also share products and information and set up links with each others’ support operations. To this end, a TSANet database is to be set up, based on Lotus’ Notes groupware product.
