Services Timeline

|  | Information Research Services | Updated: 01 December 1997

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 1963: DIGITAL has 12 field service engineers who work together to cover a territory that includes the U.S. and installations in Germany and England.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | July 1964: The first European Customer Training Center opens in Reading, England.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | July 1968: There are more than 50 sales and services offices in 11 countries all over the world.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | June 1971: The first annual customer satisfaction survey is taken.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 1977: DIGITAL opens the DIGITAL Diagnosis Center (DDC) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is the industry's first facility for computerized remote diagnosis.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | November 1982: The Customer Support Center in Colorado Springs pilots Remote Fault Isolation Technology for software support in the VMS and TOPS support groups.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 1983: DIGITAL launches its first multivendor customer service program, designed to provide customers -- from small businesses to Fortune 500 organizations -- with a full range of service and support for both DIGITAL and non-DIGITAL products.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | October 1983: DIGITAL starts the industry's first remote delivery of software updates from its Colorado Springs facility.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | April 1986: DIGITAL occupies its first built-for-remote services facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The building was designed with redundant power supplies, battery backup, emergency generators and multiple telephone lines to assure the highest level of customer service availability.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | March 1990: An operations center is opened in Berlin to prepare for the opportunities created by a unified German marketplace.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | March 1990: DIGITAL delivers the first integrated hardware/software premium support service tailored to the availability and responsiveness needs of Mission Critical customers. This service, packaged with the VAX 9000 mainframe class machine, was the fundamental start for future premium services.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | June 1991: DIGITAL announces Open Advantage, a worldwide corporate strategy to establish DIGITAL as the industry leader in developing open solutions that give customers the freedom to choose and the power to use the highest-quality applications available at the best price.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 1993: MCS and DIGITAL Consulting Services announce ten new services designed to help customers plan, implement and maintain reliable open client/server systems worldwide.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | March 1993: In an example of meeting Mission Critical customer needs, DIGITAL delivers its first computer-assisted proactive patch using the PROpatch tool.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | August 1995: DIGITAL and Microsoft announce a strategic alliance to meet growing customer demand for Microsoft-based solutions and support in enterprise-wide computing. As part of the alliance, DIGITAL Services deploys the largest, most skilled group of Microsoft certified engineers in the world.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | July 1996: The General Services Administration (GSA) of the Federal Government awards DIGITAL MCS the contract for the remarketing, recycling, and environmentally-safe disposal of approximately one million pounds of obsolete computer equipment from Government agencies.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | January 1997: DIGITAL announces Client Support Service, a set of unique service plans that combine hardware support, software support, and personalized information services to meet the user's complete information-related needs.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | June 1997: With more than one million Microsoft Exchange seats under contract, DIGITAL becomes the world’s leading provider of mail and messaging solutions to large global accounts.