Microsoft buys itself some e-support

Microsoft reportedly has purchased Gteko, an Israeli networking and support software vendor for an undisclosed amount.

The deal supposedly will be disclosed officially in a couple of days.

Gteko’s mission statement on its Web site describes the company as a vendor of “products (that) enable PC & peripherals manufacturers, Internet Service Providers and Software Vendors with large technical support centers to improve end-user experience and service quality while substantially reducing call-center costs.”

Hewlett-Packard, Cisco-Linksys and Canon are all Gteko customers, the company’s site says.

Gteko’s specialty is “e-support.” With three major new products about to debut – Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 – all about to debut, Microsoft definitely could benefit from shoring up its product-support ranks.

But Gteko also owns something else, according to the company site, from which Microsoft might benefit: Diagnostic and fix tools.

Microsoft has been building a bunch of its own diagnostic and fix tools for both internal and external use. Gteko has a few tools of its own to bring to the table, according to the company’s site.

In Gteko’s tool chest: A diagnostic engine “which may be downloaded to the customer's computer as a small ActiveX control”; a network-device configurator; an installation package that “creates seamless, silent driver installation packages for customers' computers”; and various tutorials.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available.