Newsgroups: bit.listserv.novell
Date:         Wed, 30 Sep 1992 22:40:00 CDT
Reply-To:     Novell LAN Interest Group <NOVELL@SUVM.BITNET>
From:         "Don M. Wee/Loyola Univ Chicago" <$ACSDMW@LUCCPUA.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: PC/LAN Service Contracts

> Here at Morehead State University we are trying to develop an internal
> service contract plan for our 1500 or so PCs.  Of these 1500 or so
> PCs about five hundred are HP vectra machines attached to isolated
> 2.15 and 3.11 NW LANs.  Most of these workstations will come off
> HPs service contract in the next two fiscal years.  Some questions:
>
> Is anyone out there selling "in house" service contracts?  Are in
> house contracts more cost effective than going with the manufacturer?
> What about third party service contracts?
> Right now my problems is that HP wants an arm and a leg for parts if
> we chose to service these machines in-house.  I would appreciate
> hearing how others are dealing with these issues - especially
> anyone with experience dealing with HP machines.
> Please respond to me directly at brent@morekypr.bitnet.
> Thanks
> Brent Jones
> Senior Microcomputer
> consultant
> Morehead State University

If you happen to be a member of ACM's SIG on University and College
Computing Services, the 1992 conference is in Cleveland in early
November.  I'll be giving a talk there on issues in choosing between
internal services and outsourcing.  Hitting some of the high spots
relevant to your question about PC repair/maintenance:
-- There ARE third-party parts refurbishers out there that will sell
  exchange parts with you for a published price if you decide to do
  self-maintenance.
-- We started self-maintenance 7 years ago at the 500-PC level
  but switched to third-party maintenance contracts 2 years ago.
  7 years ago we had only a few models to deal with and stocking the
  parts ourselves was doable.  We've got over 100 different models of
  PCs that we've recommended in the past 9 years that we need to repair,
  and we just CANNOT stock parts cost-effectively for all of those
  models: we need the economies of scale of our third-party service
  provider to be able to get obscure parts reliably.
- In our RFP for third-party maintenance, we asked for a LOT and got it.
 . On-site service techs
 . On-site parts storage for most-commonly-needed parts
 . Published performance minimums: 85% of all calls restored to service
   within 1 day; 95% within 3 days (1st two criteria can be met with
   loaners); and 100% of calls closed completely within 3 weeks
   (ie, if loaner used, get original fixed and back in or give
   the user the loaner to keep forever).
 . Penalty clause if performance tagets missed in more than 1 month
   (and a bonus paid if bonus met EVERY month in a year)
 . On-site loaners and hot-spares for file servers
 . 7x24 coverage for file servers and listed critical systems
 . On-site techs do preventive maintenance if it's a slow repair day.
 . If caught up on PMs, on-site tech helps our staff
- We are currently using a local 3rd party maintenance organization:
  saving a ton of money compared to manufacturer service contracts,
  AND getting faster service via on-site techs and parts.  All bidders
  said they revised down their bids because we did triage and our own
  software support -- so they didn't get called out to fix a printer
  just to discover it wasn't plugged in or a driver had been erased.
- When we did self-maintenance, costs grew more slowly than PC count
  but primarily because we couldn't grow our staff fast enough to
  keep up with demand, so downtime got worse and worse.  Now,
  maintenance costs grow each year faster than other budgets...
  because they are tied to PC counts...but quality of service and
  availability of systems is maintained.  Makes VPs aware of the
  previously hidden cost of doubling number of PCs in a school....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DON M. WEE     LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
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