Conference 7.286::digital

    Hello Mario,
    
    You may want to speak Bonnie Merritt in CXO @592-4737.
    
    I believe that she may be able to direct you to the information you're
    looking for on Silver Support.
    
    
    Regards,
    
    Scott

Hi,

Are there any definitions of what customers can expect for the various
levels of support (bronze/silver/gold ...) that are on the Network?

I'm not interested in any custom contracts or extensions to existing
contracts - just what comes as standard with each one.


One area I'm interested in clarification is support for old versions of
products. With Software it's common to `drop support' for a product after
a period of time (typically after 6 - 12 months) following release of
the latest version. However, we don't stop collecting Support Contract
annuities. 

Thanks
Mark
 

try:

http://www-amcs.shr.dec.com/mkt/service_desc.htm

Every service offer has a "Customer Service Description" document. Let's say 
is to a service what the SPD is to the product. You can find them on VTX 
CS_POLICY for US CSDs (assuming you're in the US), or at URL:

http://www-amcs.shr.dec.com/mkt/service_desc.htm

We have introduced earlier this year a service specific for customer who 
decide not to run the latest release. Is named Prior Version Support. You 
can find the CSD for that service also in the URL above.

Thanks - very good references.


They still don't really address the point I made .-3.

i.e. is prior version support a *supplement* to an existing support
contract? (i.e. you must have both?). This is what it seems to imply
but you could also view it as a replacement contract.

Also, if the customer still remits revenues for the existing contract and
Digital collects them, does that create an implied contract?

If the customer actually was not running a version of Software that
was current, can they claim a refund for all the monies they
remitted while they were unsupported? 


I suspect that if we told all VMS V5.5, V6.x customers to stop paying
us until they were at a supported version that would create a huge
hole in in our revenues.


Mark
 

        RE:.0   Pro-active patch notification is for the operating system
        only.  It involves the technical account manager downloading a
        program to the customer's system, running it and mailing the
        results back to the customer support center for analysis.  This
        final report is than sent back to the customer and represents his
        notification.  The customer support center maintains the rules
        database that triggers callout for ECOs.
        
        THIS IS AN OPTIONAL FEATURE and some customers don't use it or
        don't have DSNlink so that it can be done.  Looks like Kanata will
        have to staff up to provide Silver and higher support, as they all
        rely heavily on DSNlink for the pro-active features.
        
        Dave Zaniewski

>i.e. is prior version support a *supplement* to an existing support
>contract? (i.e. you must have both?). This is what it seems to imply
>but you could also view it as a replacement contract.

Yes, it is a supplement.

>Also, if the customer still remits revenues for the existing contract and
>Digital collects them, does that create an implied contract?

>If the customer actually was not running a version of Software that
>was current, can they claim a refund for all the monies they
>remitted while they were unsupported? 

The customer is paying for support on the latest version for which, by the 
way, they buy the rights for it in order to get the support. We cannot force 
them to install the latest release. We will provide them the support they 
are paying for which is for the latest version.

Hope this answers your questions

    
    
    So if a customer is running current release minus one and is 
    paying for support on the current version we are going to charge
    them for prior version support *plus* current version support?
    
    The customer will probably say 'Thank you very much, we'll go per
    call' and as mentioned previously we will then be looking at a rather 
    large decline in revenue.
    
    We release version X and build up expertise, databases, etc. with which 
    we use to support our customers, then we release the next version and
    we want to charge *more* for version X than we did when it was the
    current version?  
    
    The calls on previous versions are usually the easiest ones since 
    usually we've already seen the problem and know how to fix it. 
      
    I do understand that we don't want to provide *engineering* level support 
    for previous versions but best effort support on prior versions is
    money for old rope. 
    
    
    Angela 
    CSC Sydney
    
    
    	
    

> Hope this answers your questions

Yes it does thanks.


However, ... what are the marketing plans for this? 

None of the customers I deal with were aware of this. There must be
thousands of customers out there who believe that a valid support contract
is vital for their production systems. That would imply $M's in 
uncollected additional revenue for us? 

That would also imply there are thousands of potential customer satisfaction 
"time bombs" out there, as those people discover they are unsupported while
they are in the middle of a crisis? To quote from another recent note "midnight
is no time to try and cut a purchase order". 

Mark

        Hi Angela,
        
        Actually if each customer dropped Bronze support (old name basic),
        2 per calls per month per product would exceed the costs of Bronze
        and possibly Silver support.  That would be about $500M a year in
        the US for software support.
        
        Dave Zaniewski

    Re .8
    
>   So if a customer is running current release minus one and is 
>   paying for support on the current version we are going to charge
>   them for prior version support *plus* current version support?
    
    My understanding is that the customer doesn't have to pay the 
    Prior Version Support (PVS) uplift unless they want to have the 
    right to say "Escalate this problem to engineering and get me a fix!"
    This makes sense considering that if the problem can go that
    long unseen and unreported then there won't be many customers
    needing it.  Without PVS they would still have acesss to the CSC 
    and currently existing ECO's.
    
    
    Robin 
    CSC/CTH
    

    All current SSS (basic software support that is being transitioned to
    Bronze) will remain as SSS until their contract renewal.  Only those
    customer with renewals commencing 8/1/97 will be (should be) impacted. 
    Those prior to that date will continue to be provided 7X24 coverage
    until THEIR renewal.  This transition process is expected to take
    approximately 12 - 18 months.  Letters are going out as I write this to
    all software customers announcing the change.  A more "specialized"
    letter is going out to our DecService hardware customers that will more
    than likely be significantly impacted because it stands to reason that
    if you've got a decservice 24X7 hardware contract, you want 24x7
    software support as well.
    
    It has worked well in the ACD District (carolinas, VA, etc,) and is
    predicted to work well cross country. 
    
    Toodles.....JPs
    

        re: .11
        
        This is not quite correct.  
        
        If the customer is running current version -1, and the product is
        not on the prior version support list, there is no way it can be
        escalated to engineering.  If it does get escalated to
        engineering, the cost will be born by the unit manager's cost
        center.
        
        If the customer is running current version -1, and the product is
        on the prior version support list, then the customer can purchase
        either a prior version support uplift or a one time escalate to
        engineering per event.
        
        Dave Zaniewski

(I was involved in the initial design of this service. It is handle now by a 
peer)

Prior Version Support includes two levels of support:

Sustaining Engineering:

Calls can be escalated to engineering. We are providing additional funding to 
 selected engineering  groups (therefore the need to have a list of the 
products with to this level of support) to handle escalations on prior 
versions, therefore we need to have a surcharge from current version. So the 
surcharge is needed to cover the additional funding needed, to motivate 
customers to stay at latest rev and to fall back to stanadard charges once 
they do.

Best Endeavor:

We will respond to support calls with resources within MCS, no escalations. 
There is no additional charge in the US.

We plan to provide similar support on selected (or soon to be) retired 
products.

re: the list of products

Is this list available? 
Who creates it? (i.e. MCS or "Engineering")?

Thanks
Mark

        One source is:
        http://www.digital.com/services/mcs_configuration.htm 
        
        I believe the list is negotiated between between MCS and the
        various engineering groups, then written into their contract.
        
        Dave Zaniewski

    I just got a big packet in the mail of all kinds of service pricing.
    Hundreds of entries in a bunch of spreadsheets, under teh name of
    something like 'quick price'.
    
    Nowhere in this package was Silver or Gold or any other metal
    mentioned. ALl the service offerings had different names. 
    
    Is this metal naming stuff real or just used internally? How would one
    trtanslate from the metal names to teh official part numbers?
    
    I am on-site at a major customer (over $15k per month service charges)
    and we have tried for 3 yers to explain the service offering to the
    customer. Every time we think we are close someone changes the
    terminology or the T's and C's.

re .16 

The only page that came close to:-

 http://www.digital.com/services/mcs_configuration.htm

was 

 http://www.digital.com/services/mcs/mcs_configuration.htm

is that correct?


Bob

re .18. Yes, that is where the list is.

re .16

We sell annuity service agreements and "point of sale" services, the latter 
are prepaid, preconfigured service packages (not only SW support) at 
different levels of service. What you received was only for the POPS 
package. If you are SBU sales, you get credit for POPS type sales, but, as I 
understand, not for annuity contracts.

Since metal names have been assigned to levels of SW services only, these 
packages, which inlcude HW maintenance, SW support and license subscription 
when applicable, have a different nomenclature.

FYI, the SW support component of warranty plus, priority and priority 24 are 
at "Bronze" level, Priority Plus and Premier are at Silver.

Re: .17  LEXSS1::GINGER

For a description of the *metal* services, see:

	http://www.digital.com/services/mcs/mcs_support.htm

/Mario

Are there any further details on internal pages regarding what the

"14,000 software and hardware products from 1,300 vendors"

consists of?

drilling down the pages just gets to the old:-

"For a list of supported products, contact your local DIGITAL sales 
 office. Additional business applications may also be evaluated for 
 support at your request"

thanks in advance,

Bob

I've read through the Digital Gold Support description at
http://www-amcs.shr.dec.com/mkt/svc_gold1.htm
and I wondered if this just covers the US or if it's worldwide?

Is there a description available for the UK or Europe?

Pam

    The "metal" offerings will not be made available in Europe. We are not
    trying to be difficult this time. Differences in anti-trust legislation
    between the US and Europe mean that we are not able to offer this type
    of package as our principal software support offering. The corporate
    SWS offer description, managed by Tavo Diaz includes the description of
    the what we have implemented everywhere in Europe
    except Sweden and Greece in the last three weeks. Sweden and Greece are
    going ahead in the coming days. The European SWS offer does not have
    License Subscription as a prerequisite. It is priced per CPU, does not
    have a main/dependent CPU concept and covers Digital products,
    Multivendor UNIX and Windows NT.
    
    If you are a UK MCS employee, as your note suggests, you should have
    been through the training on this. If not, Howard Boardman @HHL is in
    charge of UK implementation of the entire Menu. Annette Hornby @REO
    should be able to give you the Customer Information Sheets for this and
    all other Menu offers.
    
    Maurice
    (Eur. Service Portfolio Mgr.)
    Maurice