Bermuda Microsystems is tapping half a dozen of its top corporate customers for feedback to be used for the company's future business planning.

"In order to do better we need to be better, and the most important way to do that is to regularly take the temperature of our key, strategic customers," said Bob Mellor, manager of the company's professional services and technical support teams.

BMG, an information technology group which counts more than 200 of the Island's companies as clients, said the six firms picked to sit on its inaugural customer advisory board are long-standing clients that use a range of products from the company under professional service, maintenance or sales contracts.

BMG isn't naming who will sit on the board but said the companies represented are from a broad cross-section of its client base, including from the finance, education, government, retail and law sectors.

The advisory board will meet for the first time next month, and thereafter, on a quarterly basis.

BMG said it decided to implement its own customer advisory board after this means of seeking customer feedback was an "unprecedented success" for US and UK companies.

IT companies, such as California-based software group Oracle, have used customer advisory boards to validate that their product offerings are in sync with clients' technical needs.

"The objective of the board will be to provide regular feedback on the quality of the products and services we offer, to outline what the customers' strategic IT requirements are going to be over the next 12 months and two years, and to mould Bermuda Microsystems' strategic product and service offerings to accommodate" customers' needs, said company president Philip Cooper, a founder of the firm in 1993. He remains a co-owner along with Bermuda insurance group, Argus.

BMG is a sales and service partner for Dell, Sun Microsystems, and also has partnerships with Altiris, EMC, Symantec and Microsoft, as well as being a field service partner for Bloomberg LP.