ST1707

STRATEGY:
STRATEGY: THIRD PARTY MAINTENANCE
AT YOUR SERVICE?
SIMON DEARLOVE, MAJOR ACCOUNT DIRECTOR AT NCE COMPUTER GROUP, SUGGESTS SOME
KEY POINTS FOR ANY ORGANISATION CONSIDERING USING A THIRD PARTY MAINTENANCE
(TPM) PROVIDER
With the ever-increasing demand to
make constrained IT budgets stretch
further and still maintain
comprehensive and robust services, reducing
expenditure has become a vital strategy. That
said, ensuring interruptions to service are kept
to a minimum is essential and that presents a
challenge for most IT managers and IT
directors.
The lifecycle option to refresh hardware every
three to five years is no longer the simple
choice it used to be, and with most vendors
support pricing escalating dramatically for
continuing hardware support past its End of Life
(EOL), this raises the question of what
alternative options are available.
The current economic climate has seen a
significant increase in the use of Third Party
Maintenance (TPM) providers who offer
extended support solutions at a greatly reduced
rate compared with the vendor. But how do
you decide which TPM to depend upon to
deliver the level of service you require? What
assurances can you obtain until the moment
you need to put their services to the test? The
following are a few key points to consider when
selecting a reputable and reliable TPM.
Contract Flexibility - Most TPMs will offer
support services on short, medium or
long-term contracts with simplified and
flexible billing options across a range of
service level agreements (SLAs). Having
flexibility in your contract will ensure that
you can select the best option for your
business, dependent on your economic
constraints. Other benefits could include
the ability to pro-rata and co-terminate
multiple support contracts into a master
contract for a simplified contract
management process. This process
prevents accidental lapses in service when
renewing support contracts with varying
end dates.
No Time Limit - A TPM has no predefined
rules as to when support for a system will
cease to be available. The likely
determining factor will be the availability
and expense of replacement parts, which
will still be available for many years after
the vendor has stopped support. Having
the option and ability to maximise the
potential life from your hardware, brings
additional benefits including lowering the
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and
providing the option to redirect allocated
capital expenditure elsewhere.
Multi-Vendor Support - Having a single
point of contact when you have a service
issue can greatly simplify the process of
receiving quick and efficient support
when required. This is especially true if
you have a multi-vendor IT environment
with interconnected systems from various
vendors running critical applications.
Having a master contract in place
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10 STORAGE July/August 2017
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