RAYTHEON CO., Lexington, Mass., said it had won a five-year contract extension from NASA valued at as much as $500 million to maintain computers that collect environmental data from satellites.
Mr. Irwin said experience in Canada showed that it was difficult to maintain computers mounted in the elevator cabs because of fluctuations in electric power, uneven temperatures and dirt.
Arco, the oil giant, recently hired Wang to upgrade and maintain computers at its 1,700 retail outlets and to train attendants to use them.
Cognet, a two-year-old company based in Valhalla, develops tools that update and maintain computer software without users even knowing.
Intuit and other companies maintain computer systems that relay the returns to the tax collectors, and the government-authorized fees are meant to compensate them for their investment and expense.
"The general perception is just like the 'Saturday Night Live' sketch," said Keith Shaw, a senior editor and columnist at Network World, a weekly trade magazine for people who maintain computer networks.
At Wipro's sprawling suburban campus near Bangalore, enthusiastic young engineers in blue-and-cream cubicles write code, build software and maintain computer systems for a host of American companies, including Lehman Brothers, General Motors, Home Depot and Boeing.
Reflecting a marked shift in the high-technology industry in recent years, executives said the combined entity, officially announced this morning in New York, is intended to become a juggernaut in a growing category called "services," a potentially highly profitable business that entails assisting corporations to set up, organize and maintain computer and data networks.
In a separate multibillion-dollar agreement, IBM will help maintain computer networks for customers of Cisco.
Software engineers, working in applications or systems development, analyze users' needs and accordingly design, construct, test, and maintain computer applications software or systems.
Nilekani is spending $140 million on training this year and has built a $300 million center in Mysore to mold new hires into the "Infoscions" who write software, design airplane components, process mortgage applications and maintain computer systems on behalf of multinational companies.
