AWA provides the service and support requirements for manufacturing company 3M's library customers including all warranties, maintenance programs, and new installations such as RFID technology.

Michele Collins, 3M Australia's library systems division sales and marketing manager, said AWA was chosen because of its "national service infrastructure".

"[AWA's] in-house service information system lets us see exactly how our customers are being looked after and also helps us to learn more about their technical and service requirements," Collins said.

John Dougall, AWA's executive chairman, said the deal with 3M, valued "somewhere less than a million a year", is a good example of keeping IT management in-house, but contracting the deployment and restoration of library management systems.

AWA's strengths are now in desktop and network services and support, and in certain situations is "getting up to first-tier" service provider status.