TPM & OEM Vendor Services Evaluation
Are you receiving the support and services you’re paying for?
With much disruption in recent years in the IT services sector – both at the OEM and TPM levels – it can be difficult identifying the support services you originally contracted and whether the 3rd Party vendor resources you’re counting on to deliver critical HW and SW support services are still being provided by your TPM & OEM vendors.
Our associates have decades of experience analyzing maintenance and support agreements, determining what you’re being charged for on a recurring basis and identifying areas where you’re likely at risk in the environment and/or potential cost savings.
We’ve seen too many cases where vendors are billing customers for services they have long ago discontinued, are charging you fees for equipment you have long since decommissioned, or have significantly changed service delivery practices putting you at greater unknown risk. How many agreements are renewed “Same as last year” or “so long as the prices haven’t changed?”
Common Notable Instances Arising in Services Contract Evals:
- Equipment no longer in service hasn’t been removed from support entitlement.
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) expectations have been unknowingly changed, or remained the same without intention to meet e.g. 4-hr SLA on-site with parts requiring stocking of tested/functional spares now takes the form of 4-hr call-back and subsequent ‘just-in-time’ ordering and shipping of parts often taking weeks to fulfill.
- The TPM or OEM has EOL’d support on critical equipment and either was not noticed by customer or not communicated by the vendor.
- Critical peripheral equipment such as storage arrays/disks etc. are overlooked for maintenance.
- Resources, partners, and outsourcers vendors have utilized in the past are no longer affiliated or being utilized in service delivery due to mergers/acquisitions or other business priorities.
- Bundled services appearing as one large monthly assessment have not been delivered for years.
- Actual equipment technical configurations are not consistent with what’s been carried on the support agreement since purchase of equipment – client is either not utilizing licenses originally purchased or it’s just always been incorrect, incurring excessive regular recurring support/maintenance fees. Beechglen utilizes our continually updated NICKEL script to accurately assess equipment configurations.
- Multi-vendor HW support outfit commoditized niche subject matter expert support resources without notifying customer/users.
Beyond cost-savings and support risk reduction, our vendor services evaluation makes recommendations within our value-creating portfolio of services to prepare you for the Legacy Lifecycle and protect your existing investment in software/applications.
