6 Questions You Need to Answer Before A Network Outage
Support contracts aren’t a sexy topic. They’re tedious, they consume a ton of time and energy, and, when the process is over, those efforts may net IT an even larger expense to fit into budgets. Actually, saying support contracts typically aren’t a sexy subject may be putting it mildly, however, as any organization that’s run into an outage can attest, they can fast become a hot topic.
In the event of a hardware or software malfunction resulting in network downtime, all eyes invariably turn to support contracts during remediation. No longer allowed to lurk in the background, suddenly everyone from other IT personnel to organizational leadership will be thinking and talking about support. At some point during these outage-inspired support contract conversations, the following questions are almost certain to come up:
- Was manufacturer support even purchased or was it decided that the warranty was sufficient?
- Is the hardware still covered by the manufacturer support contract or warranty?
- Is there an SLA from the manufacturer concerning when the replacement tool or component will arrive, e.g., four hours, next business day, best effort?
- What avenues are available in the event that the support contract or warranty has expired?
- Does the business have access to a spare solution or component? If not, where and how can one be secured? Will the purchasing process slow the order and arrival of a replacement? Can it be overnighted?
- Once the replacement arrives, who is going to configure it? Is a backup available for all of the pertinent and mission critical saved on the downed solution? Is someone available with the skills needed to ensure continued access to that data?
In truth, most of these questions can – and should – be answered before an outage as part of a regular contract review process. Additionally, reviews must include identifying when solutions and tools are nearing their end of support dates and budgeting for their eventual replacements. Of course, these things take time and that is not something anyone in IT has in abundance these days.
Next steps: Expert support for your vendor support contracts
Working with a strategic partner for support contracts can take work from the plates of busy technicians, allowing them to focus their energies on their daily tasks, on-going projects and/or dealing with the latest fire drill. Partners bring a wealth of firsthand experience in the support contracts space, giving businesses the peace of mind that comes from knowing that, should something go wrong with their mission critical technologies, they won’t be on their own.
Arraya Solutions has spent years managing support contracts for businesses in all industries. We have a proven track record of helping organizations answer the above questions and we can make support contract management less of a headache by:
- Assisting with determining risk levels
- Mitigating risk where applicable
- Reconciling contract discrepancies
- Co-terming contract end dates when necessary
- Executing regular high-level reviews of contracts
- Providing notification of expiring contracts
- Performing support contract budgeting exercises
- Identifying and securing cost-savings opportunities
Want to start a dialogue regarding how Arraya can help your organization manage manufacturer support contracts more efficiently? Reach out to us today by visiting www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be contacted through our social media presence: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Be sure to follow us for all of our latest blogs as well as alerts about upcoming special events.
