System Support
When purchasing a system, discussion will inevitably turn to the support to be provided by the supplier. There may be an agreement whereby the supplier will provide the software for an initial warranty period at no cost to the institution, although this is unlikely to be a lengthy period or prove to be particularly valuable to the institution as much of the time will be spent installing and becoming familiar with the software. Therefore, in due course, the institution must decide whether the software should become supported by the supplier under the specific terms and conditions of a support agreement.
The costs of a support service from the software supplier are likely to be considerable and may indeed be prohibitive. Further, an institution may consider its obligations under such an agreement to be too onerous. There are, however, significant benefits to be gained from such an agreement at no cost over and above the original support charge. These can be summarised as follows:
easy access to the supplier's technical and operational expertise and assistance when it is required according to the severity of the problem
easy access to the supplier's global knowledge-base of solutions for 24 hours for 7 days per week ["24x7"] on the Internet
easy access to all software upgrades and patches, including enhancements and 'bug fixes' whenever it is convenient, but downloadable 24x7 on the Internet
easy access to all technical and operational system documentation 24x7 on the Internet
a realistic chance of system availability and reliability 24x7 or for less time if required
a realistic chance of reducing system downtime and increasing productivity
less pressure on your organisation's own IT support
assistance with major software upgrades
After all, a support agreement is simply an insurance policy. The institution must balance the risk of a major problem bringing down the operation of the system and the institution's business process at a critical time (e.g. student admissions when examination results are being announced) and the unknown cost of it being resolved at short notice by an uncommitted system support organisation against the guaranteed high-priority attention by the system supplier at a fixed known cost.
Quite understandably, the supplier will impose inhibitive conditions upon its support and many obligations for your organization. They are likely to include the following:
| Use of software | Each user must be licenced by the supplier |
| You must notify supplier of any increase in the number of users | |
| You may not use the software for any purpose other than that stipulated by the licence | |
| You may not copy the software or documentation for use by any third party | |
| You may not amend the software without the supplier's written approval | |
| You must ensure that the hardware on which the software is to be installed is of sufficient specification and in good operating condition | |
| You must have appropriate back-up and recovery procedures to enable the system to be fully restored and lost or altered files, data or programs reconstructed with minimum loss of data and delay | |
| You must install all software upgrades within 12 months of release along with all patches previously issued since the last upgrade | |
| You must have installed either the latest or immediately prior release of the software | |
| You must select suitable employees or representatives to be trained and must withdraw from training anyone the supplier considers to have insufficient aptitude to use the software | |
| You must provide sufficient details to assist the identification and resolution of problems in the software. |
Whilst you have obligations to the supplier they, of course, have an obligation to provide a support service to you as customer. The level of support is likely to include the following:
| Telephone support and technical investigation for problem resolution during normal office hours (e.g. Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm) |
| Facilities to lodge requests for support and technical investigation for problem resolution via post, fax and e mail 24x7 |
| Access to a global knowledge-base of solutions 24x7 on the Internet, including access to the latest software downloads and patches |
| Recording of all support calls and monitoring of response times |
| Updates on the progress of support calls and problem resolution |
| Reports of outstanding support calls |
| Support call prioritisation procedure so that the priority for resolution for each problem can be agreed (please see below) |
| Responses within the agreed time according to the priority of the support call (responses mean the start of technical investigation, ascertaining further details of the problem and discussing/progressing its resolution) |
| Reasonable endeavours to resolve problems by the specified target time, according to the priority of the support call, or provide updates on the progress and a revised target time for resolution |
| Support call escalation procedure so that, if a response to the call has not been received by the relevant target time, the problem has not been resolved by the relevant target time, an update on progress and a revised target time for resolution have not been received, or in any other way there has been unsatisfactory service, the institution can escalate the support call to a higher authority within the supplier's organisation |
| Notification that problems have been resolved to the user who reported the problem and of the actions taken or to be taken |
| A software patch if the resolution of a problem dictates such action; inclusion of enhancements in the next software upgrade if the resolution of a problem dictates such action |
| All relevant software patches and upgrades at no additional charge |
| All relevant software technical and operational system documentation at no additional charge |
| All major releases of the software, possibly at an additional charge outside the terms of the agreement |
The agreed support call prioritisation procedure and agreed response and resolution target times may be similar to those described below:
| Priority | Problem | Target Response Time | Target Resolution Time |
| 1 - Critical | The user is unable to use a business critical function in the software (i.e. a function on which the user is totally dependent in order to continue the normal course of business) | 1 elapsed hour | 4 elapsed hours |
| 2 - Major | The user is unable to use an important business function in the software (i.e. a function that is causing major inconvenience, but is not preventing the normal course of business) | 2 elapsed hours | 8 elapsed hours |
| 3 - Standard | The user is unable to use any normal function in the software (i.e. that is causing some, but not major inconvenience) | 8 elapsed hours | 3 working days |
| 4 - Minor | any other problem in the software (i.e. a problem that has minimal impact on the normal course of business) | 24 elapsed hours | 5 working days |
There may also be a class of problem that is considered to be 'cosmetic' (i.e. that has no impact on functionality) that may be considered as an enhancement in the next upgrade to the product. Often such requests are logged by the supplier and prioritised depending on level of customer demand (this is often rated through avenues such as User Groups).
Hardware and Networking Facilities Support and Upgrades
There is likely to be an initial warranty period during which the suppliers of hardware and networking facilities are obliged to provide support for new hardware and networking facilities. At the outset, the suppliers should be asked to provide details of their arrangements to support the hardware and networking facilities beyond the warranty period, including annual maintenance charges, and their policies towards upgrades and an institution arranging its own hardware and networking facilities support and maintenance. In the same way as support will be available from the software supplier, support arrangements will also be available from suppliers of the hardware and networking facilities.
