Gateway Australia outsources tech support

Gateway will outsource its Australia-New Zealand technical support calls, a move that comes on the back of a cost-cutting campaign that led the PC maker to cut nearly one-third of its staff in the Asia-Pacific region this year.

The transition of the Sydney, Australia-based support center to Datacom will be effective Aug. 1, according to a company e-mail seen by CNET.

A Gateway representative in San Diego confirmed on Friday the e-mail's authenticity.

According to the e-mail, the "majority" of the technical support team will be offered positions within Datacom. Whether the jobs will be equal to their current employment levels is unknown.

"Our advanced services and field services teams will remain with Gateway and will work closely with our new services partner," the e-mail said.

The e-mail asserted that Gateway's move to outsource its support will "offer improved career and development opportunities" for the technical support team and will deliver "improved service levels to our customers."

CNET earlier reported that Gateway Asia-Pacific has laid off about 250 employees from its payroll in the past six months, including all 70 workers at its Malaysian sales office.

Meanwhile, Gateway has appointed Hong Kong-based NetCel360 Holdings as the exclusive reseller for its products in Singapore and Hong Kong.

NetCel360--which was recently acquired by Vsource, an outsourcing and technology services company--will provide all sales and marketing services for Gateway products in the two markets.

In addition, NetCel360 will operate Gateway retail stores, provide customer relationship management services and manage product delivery.

CNET Singapore's Rachel Lebihan reported from Sydney, CNET Singapore's Michelle Tan reported from Singapore, and News.com's Natalie Weinstein reported from San Francisco.