Comtek (gmbh) Ltd.

News

February 2010

Comtek's HP Support

"Pan-European IT repair services outfit Comtek is not holding back in expressing its support for HP as the vendor giant eyes the networking market." - Channel EMEA

"A pan-European supplier of IT repair services has called on Hewlett Packard to sock it to Cisco and urged it to capitalise on the industry's sentiment." - Tech Eye

We are finding increasing number of customers looking for an alternative solution to Cisco.

January 2010

Channel must reduce Cisco dependence

Comtek CEO Askar Sheibani's new article in CRN discusses the need to reduce Cisco dependence.

Comtek expansion announcement

Comtek has announced a profit increase in the previous year. We plan to expand during 2010, opening a dedicated Telecoms repair unit. See microscope.co.uk article.

December 2009

Exporter of the Year Award

Booming orders for communications equipment repairs brought early Christmas cheer and recognition to Comtek's employees this year.

Comtek was named "Exporter of the Year" at the recent December 2009 Achievement Wales Business Awards. The past 12 months have seen a large growth in the volume of repairs of many types of communications equipment. The most common brands of equipment repaired, include manufacturers such as Cisco, Extreme, Nortel, Marconi and Alcatel. The photograph shows some of the senior members of Comtek being presented with their exporter of the year award.

October 2009

Comtek launches eco-friendly and cost-effective repair service for telecoms equipment

Comtek, a Pan-European provider of IT and telecoms infrastructure repair services, has announced the launch of its Telecoms Third-Party RMA (return merchandise authorisation) service, designed to ease the support burden on telecoms equipment manufacturers – particularly those which have a limited on-the-ground presence in Europe. The new specialised service provides a rapid and responsive service which helps to improve customer loyalty.

Comtek will now offer manufacturers outsourced support and repair for both current and legacy equipment, essentially acting as the service arm of each manufacturer’s business. This allows telecoms equipment manufacturers to minimise the distances they need to ship faulty products, reducing their carbon footprints and costs, as well as significantly decreasing the time taken to repair goods.

Each RMA operation agreement will be individually tailored to the manufacturer’s specific requirements, building on a standard agreement, whereby Comtek will undertake the following:

• Provide an online portal for customers to report faults
• Ship faulty products to one of Comtek’s repair centres
• Diagnose and repair faults
• Arrange next business day delivery of return products
• Follow up with customers to ensure satisfaction

Financial Times Report on Comtek Repairs (link)

Comtek repairs rather than replaces faulty telecoms equipment, thereby minimising the ever growing problem of electronic waste. Products which are beyond repair are either recycled or safely disposed of, in compliance with WEEE regulations.

"The current business obsession with cost-cutting has put great pressure on telecoms manufacturers to provide repair services for customers who can no longer justify purchasing new equipment," said Askar Sheibani, CEO of Comtek. "However, controlling your own in-house testing, repairing, warehouse facilities and engineers to service a multitude of products is expensive and distracting. We’re looking to provide specialist third party support for all telecoms equipment manufacturers, promoting brand loyalty for the manufacturers and helping to protect the environment by maintaining rather than ditching older product lines."

As Europe’s largest multi-vendor IT repair company, Comtek has already successfully completed more than two million IT repairs, while its existing Third-Party RMA services are used by some of the world’s largest IT equipment manufacturers.

August 2009

Comtek offers support with new rescue programme for Nortel customers left in the lurch

Comtek, a pan-European provider of IT and telecoms infrastructure repair services, has announced the launch of a new programme designed to aid and support existing Nortel customers in the wake of the global communications provider’s high-profile demise.

Comtek’s "Nortel Rescue Programme" will offer a repair service for legacy and end-of-life Nortel equipment for which the company itself has now withdrawn support, including Nortel’s enterprise product portfolio as well as its transmission products for backbone networks, which are used by carriers across the world.

Nortel has not been profitable for more than a decade, and filed for creditor protection on January 14th 2009. It has sold its carrier wireline assets to Nokia Siemens Networks and – most recently – its enterprise unit to Avaya, while the company is also looking for a buyer for its remaining metro ethernet unit. It is currently unclear how long Nortel’s current product portfolio will be supported, and many discontinued products are no longer being supported at all. Furthermore, replacing one piece of legacy equipment can often have a knock-on effect for the rest of the network, leaving some companies facing the prospect of having to rip and replace their entire infrastructures.

However, with Europe's largest multi-vendor IT hardware repair centres, and more than 40 engineers located across the continent, Comtek has the ability and expertise to repair both legacy and current Nortel equipment to an extremely high standard, quickly and with minimal disruption to customer networks, providing a low-cost alternative to purchasing new equipment.

"Nortel’s problems have been well-documented, but as it sells off its remaining assets, many customers have been left staring into the abyss, as the products they rely on for their core business operations are no longer being supported," said Askar Sheibani, CEO of Comtek. "Multiple global infrastructures are based on Nortel equipment, and we’ve already had enquiries from major carriers asking if we can repair and support these legacy systems. We’re launching the Nortel Rescue Programme with this in mind - reaching out to the many companies that see the genuine value in continuing to use Nortel kit in these tough economic times, rather than embarking on expensive and unnecessary upgrade projects."

Many companies have traditionally opted against infrastructure repair, either through a lack of viable repair options, or due to the social stigma surrounding repaired products. However, in the wake of the global recession and the cost-cutting pressures facing businesses, there is growing recognition that repairing rather than replacing IT and telecoms infrastructure can greatly extend the life of existing technology and legacy systems, saving time, money and the environment. Furthermore, the warranty periods offered by Comtek on many of its repaired products significantly exceed those of new purchases, without forcing companies to enter lengthy and expensive support contracts. "Repairing products shouldn’t be viewed as an inferior option to upgrading," continued Sheibani. "The fact is that if a piece of IT or telecoms equipment serves a particular function well, there is no need to replace it on the first occasion that it breaks down. It’s more convenient and substantially cheaper to avoid replacing equipment unless there is a legitimate business need for doing so, and usually the only problem for companies is finding a qualified pair of hands to restore the equipment to working order – that’s where Comtek comes in."

May 2009

Welsh Secretary of State visits Comtek Deeside

Welsh Secretary of State, the Right Honourable Paul Murphy, and a group of officials, today visited Comtek's Welsh repair facilties to get a first hand view of high tech industry in the North Wales area.

Comtek's CEO, Askar Sheibani, escorted the minister and officials around the offices and repair workshops. Sheibani explained to the government officials, the economic importance of having a vibrant third party high tech repair industry in the local area. The government officials toured the workshops and were impressed by the huge range and volume of products that Comtek repairs for a wide range of customers.

Sheibani showed the officials examples of the types of products that Comtek repairs. The Secretary of State saw the items of Cisco, Extreme, Foundry, and other manufacturers products, which Comtek specialises in repairing.

The minister later visited the Airbus factory at nearby Broughton.

February 2009

Demand for Comtek's Repair & RMA Services

Demand for Comtek's Repair and Third-party RMA Services is booming. A recently commissioned survey has revealed that OEM based repairs and RMA services take up to three months to complete.

Comtek's CEO, Askar Sheibani, said that, "long waiting times for repairs or product exchanges are unacceptable to both end-users and distributors". Sheibani went on to say that, "Comtek's rapid third-party repairs and RMA services provide customers with the high level of service that they need. Time is money for our customers, and they don't want to wait weeks or months for their faulty products to be repaired or exchanged".

Comtek is Europe's leading independent repair service for Cisco, Extreme, 3Com, Nortel, and other brands of communications equipment. Comtek also provides third-party RMA services for companies such as Axis Communications.

Read more

Survey reveals lacking RMA/repair facilities

An independent survey commissioned by Comtek Network System, which provides outsourced RMA services to vendors worldwide, reveals the hidden costs of poor RMA handling by vendors lacking local RMA and repair facilities...

Click here to download the full press release.

Comtek's global RMA rollout

Comtek Network Systems is announcing the global rollout of its Returns Material Authorisation (RMA) service to offer hardware vendors a complete range of administrative, logistical and technical services to manage the process of replacing in and out of warranty hardware products across Europe...

Click here to download the full press release.

January 2009

Radware to purchase Nortel division

After months of speculation, Radware has announced that it is to purchase Nortel's Alteon Layer 4-7 application delivery business.

Nortel had filed for bankruptcy protection in January this year.

Radware has announced that it will develop and continue to sell the Alteon product range, under the name of Radware Alteon.

Comtek's Managing Director and Group CEO, Askar Sheibani, pledged that users of Nortel's Alteon product range can be assured that Comtek will continue to repair both current and older Nortel Alteon products, thereby providing life-long product support for Alteon users.

Comtek is Europe's largest and most experienced Nortel repair service.

Nortel receives Repair support from Comtek Network Systems

In January this year, Nortel became a casualty of the recent world-wide economic downturn, filing for bankruptcy protection in the USA and other parts of the world.

Comtek's Managing Director and Group CEO, Askar Sheibani, said today that, “Comtek will continue to provide hardware repair services for Nortel product lines. Comtek's well established Nortel repair services will ensure that Nortel customers continue to receive support in these difficult economic times”.

Sheibani continued, “Comtek is Europe's leading independent high-end repairer of both current and legacy Nortel products".

We are fully committed to supporting users of Nortel products, and to ensuring that Nortel networks remain central to public and private sector services for many years.

“Comtek has a large and strong customer base among leading national and international businesses. Despite Nortel's current problems, our repair services to the users of Nortel communications products, remains unaffected".

“This is consistent with Comtek's philosophy of extending the productive life of communications networks. Changing and renewing expensive network equipment, when existing equipment works perfectly well, doesn't make sense for our customers finances, or for the environment. Comtek not only provides repair services to customers, we deliver real returns on network investments. We remain fully supportive of Nortel products and provide long term economic benefits in the public and private sector”.