To accomplish this, Micros-to-Mainframes is teaming with eShare Technologies Inc., Commack, N.Y., to beef up its two E-commerce sites with online customer service features. EShare's NetAgent product will automate Micros-to-Mainframes' Web-based customer care and E-commerce support with realtime chat and E-mail, said Micros-to-Mainframes Chief Executive Steve Rothman.

"We are going to adopt it and put it into our live ordering site so when people order and they need help they can engage with someone and ask questions. We see this really working in a retail or customer service model," Rothman said.

The reseller is one of eShare's first E-commerce channel partners, said James Tito, chairman and chief executive of eShare. The company, which is preparing an initial public offering, has no formal VAR program but plans to target more resellers and ISPs for similar relationships to that of Micros-to-Mainframes, Tito said. NetAgent costs $2,000 per seat.

"Human interaction is a key ingredient for completing a sale [over the Internet]," said Tito.

Indeed, 35 percent of 2,321 online shoppers surveyed said they would buy more over the Internet if they had the capability to interact in realtime with a salesperson from an E-commerce site, according to a recent online study by NFO Interactive, a Greenwich, Conn.-based online market-research firm. The study also found 13.7 percent of those shoppers said they would buy a product through the Internet only if they could speak directly with a customer service representative over the phone.

Valley Cottage-based Micros-to-Mainframes was looking to add a personal touch to its E-commerce sites since the company earlier this year started shifting its business to focus on two distinct areas, Rothman said.

Micros-to-Mainframes, which had revenue of $69 million for its fiscal year ended March 31, believed a "high touch" of customer service was needed for its hardware product sales moving through its E-commerce sites at www.orderpc.com and orderpcsupplies.com, Rothman said. Its service business is under the wing of its recent acquisition of Pivot Technologies Inc., which remotely manages networks using the Internet, he said.

"It started out that we wanted to bring better customer service via the Internet and do not want the customer to lose the personal touch," Rothman said.

"If we can keep the customer happy and satisfied with a good level of service, we can drive more revenue and profitability [through E-business]."

NetAgent will be rolled out on Micros-to-Mainframes' E-commerce sites next month, Rothman said. The product can be customized to engage a customer agent at any time when a customer places an order or is having a problem, he said.

"The way NetAgent works is a customer service agent can handle more than one person and have certain scripting ability preconfigured so they do not have to type out certain questions each time," Rothman said.

Micros-to-Mainframes also plans to resell eShare's product as a part of a supply chain link and tie it to its own remote network management operations, Rothman said.

"We also want to sell this into other customer solutions. This will be a product that will fit into that area; it can go beyond procurement," he said.