Support Services
Hardware Support
There is likely to be an initial warranty period during which the hardware supplier is obliged to provide support for new hardware. During the selection phase, the supplier should have been asked to provide details of arrangements to support the hardware beyond the warranty period, including annual maintenance charges, and policies towards upgrades and an institution arranging its own hardware support and maintenance.
Although the institution may decide ultimately to direct its own IT function to support the system hardware, it is likely in the first instance that the hardware supplier or other external providers of technical services will be used for this purpose.
A common reason for appointing external technical service providers (the hardware supplier) is that the performance of the new software and its associated hardware will be inseparable and IT staff will be unfamiliar with the demands and technical peculiarities of the system. Also, the supplier is likely to be supporting similar system configurations at other educational organisations or have supported them in the past.
Our Roles and Responsibilities for Production Support template gives some starting points for outlining the role of the hardware supplier.
Networking Facilities Support
The supplier may offer support for new networking facilities, although the organisation is more likely to use its existing internal services which already support facilities for other systems across the institution. Again, this role is sketched out in our Roles and Responsibilities for Production Support template.
