For a system to be successful, we strongly recommend a continuing, on-site maintenance agreement with an authorized maintenance organization.
Many people consider this type of agreement nothing more than an insurance policy - insuring against the chance that an expensive part will break. And certainly "insurance" is part of the consideration for such an agreement.
However, there is another, more economically realistic consideration, which is the loss of time caused when any item in the system malfunctions or breaks, especially the time of the client's top management. Another very valuable and sometimes overlooked reason for extended warranty (part of the hardware maintenance plan) is for the availability of spare parts. In today's fast-moving computer evolution, the components of a computer change with increasing velocity. You need a reliable source of spare parts, especially for your main servers.
Consider the following two (real-life) scenarios for one of our own MASI clients:
Without a maintenance agreement:
- An item breaks. The clerk calls their MASI consultant and confirms that the problem is with the hardware. Without a maintenance agreement, the clerk does not have the authority to spend the money to have the item fixed, so the clerk tells the Boss (the client's top management).
- The Boss calls me. "Why did it break?" I tell him I don't know. He asks me to check into the situation, and call him back. I do, but I still don't know why. No one knows for sure. A hardware component simply failed.
- The Boss asks me what to do. I suggest calling the maintenance organization to get it fixed. He wonders what it will cost and how long the system will be down. I don't know.
- The clerk is (usually) "down;" the company might be down; the clerk, the Boss, and I worry. The Boss is unhappy with the equipment because it broke and caused this problem. The total time spent has mounted to several hours. The cost to fix the problem could be high, or it could be low.
With a maintenance agreement:
- An item breaks. The clerk calls the maintenance organization, and within a few hours, the item is fixed. The Boss doesn't get involved, and everyone stays satisfied with the equipment.
At MASI, we want our clients to always be satisfied with their system. We want the system to be successful. And without a hardware maintenance agreement, it will eventually be less than successful, every time.