third party software/hardware support

[Michael Murphy_2]

Hello,

I have recently heard that our company is considering moving hardware/software support of our servers away from HP to another vendor. Issues I have include loss of: online problem resulotion/tracking, technical expertise, custom patch generation support, and predictive support. Am I correct in stating that currrent software/hardware support gives you access to these extended tools on the itrc website? I also assume that we will have problems generating codewords for upgrades - seems like as long as support was current we got OS/systems software upgrades for free - is this correct as well?

[Helen French]

Yes. It would be always the best practice to get the supports from HP. If it's a cost issue, I would at least keep the software contract with HP so that you will have ITRC access, software updates, software support etc.

If you have critical applications and servers, you might face problems if you have multiple vendor support. Avoid situations like "It's your hardware (or software) problem, pls contact them. We are helpless!"

[Pete Randall]

Michael,

There's different types of support: hardware and software, which can then be broken down further into "phone in support" and media. In order to fully investigate this, you would have to break down your support agreements into each of these components. The best way to compare would be to ask HP to quote you just hardware, just software, just media (and the re-licensing costs if you have no media), and then look at the total costs of the proposed solutions. I suspect you'll find that you won't be saving much (if any) with 3rd party.


Pete

[G. Vrijhoeven]

Hi,

I linke to add that you will lose some extended tools in the itrc site. To check out what the tools are just log out, create a new account without the system handle and see for yourself.
It are things like SUM.

Gideon

[V. Nyga]

Hi Michael,

you should check if this third party continues your support with HP.
It is possible for some resellers and so you still can use patch support, OS upgrade, codewords for upgrades and ITRC.
Maybe you don't have online problem resolution/tracking with HP but with the third party.

Volkmar

[Patrick Wallek]

I went through the same thing around this time last year.

I was looking at 3rd party hardware support costs only. I would not even consider someone besides HP for software support. As you state, you would have issues with licensing, patches, ITRC access, etc.

The issues I had with 3rd party hardware support were response time (the engineers for the companies I checked into were about a 2 hour drive away as I am not in a large metro area), parts availability (what if they don't have the part you need?), expertise (are they trained by HP?). Yes, the cost was somewhat cheaper, but the risk was not worth it.

One thingsyou can do to cut down on costs without losing HP Support is to ask about Major Site and Multi-Year contracts. If you are a large site and spend a lot on support the major site can get you a discount. You can also do a multi-year deal (3 year I think) which will accomplish 2 things: 1) It will get you a discount and 2) It will lock in your support prices for the term of the contract. Granted you will see an increase when that contract expires, but you will not have an increase during the contract unless you add a machine.

You can also get an additional discount if you pay the entire year in advance. If you are really flush with cash, you can get an even larger discount by paying the entire 3 years in advance.

Good luck.

[Ralph Haefner]

I was in a situation like this where I last worked. They wanted to outsource the Sun hardware support to a 3rd party provider. Of course the 3rd party provider had limited supplies of parts on hand, and their skills were inferior when compared to Sun field engineers. When I asked what they did in tough cases they couldn't handle, guess what they said? "We call Sun." Isn't that great? I could have done that myself and saved the extra hours of downtime while you figured out it was beyond you to fix.

I'd carefully check that out before considering 3rd party support. What guarantees do they provide that they they have adequate skills (and parts stockpiles) to fix your systems as fast as HP could. If they can't prove they can provide the same level of service, you need to determine how the money you save balances against more downtime on your systems.