CLAYTON@XRT.UPENN.EDU.UUCP (09/29/87)
Information From TSO Financial - The Saga Continues... Chapter 25 - September 28, 1987 Todd Warnock asks the following about Field Service and other vendors besides DEC. I realize this has surfaced before on the network. Unfortunately, at the time, the information wasn't that important. Now, however, it is. I'd appreciate comments and/or suggestions about 3rd party hardware maintenance. With who ? Cost effective ? What about success with Digital's FS ? Our systems are currently under an umbrella contract with price caps with DEC. This includes several pieces of non-DEC gear. I WILL not have DEC do the maintenance on the new SI drives I have on the HSC's. I am CONSTANTLY on the phone with my local unit manager going over problems and solutions as proposed by them. Now I have another computer room which is being serviced by a different field service office and I see my problems growing. The hardest time I have is getting DEC to appreciate and work with the problems under the constraints that TSO has. We are NOT 9-5. We are 7 by 24 and NEED ALL systems functional. You can NOT take a system out for whimsical reasons. To this point, I not feel that DEC has gotten AND UNDERSTOOD this. Enough said on this for now. The other third party companies I have dealt with in the past are Grumman System Support Corporation and TRW. Grumman handled themselves well and listened then corrected any problems that I had. The Grumman deal was a 1.5 Million+ three year agreement that I signed with them. TRW had a contract to service printers and then a local guy in the company signed a system wide contract without telling anyone. TRW had problems with working the printers and their systems people had problems also. Things got ugly. Enough said. It is getting a little weird regarding diags to use. TRW bought ICE who wrote a suite of diags for VAX. TRW in turn licenses them to companies like Grumman. I have not solved that riddle to this point in time. The other item to note is that most third party vendors will NOT handle the 85/87/88 type systems. I do not blame them. My local DEC office can NOT handle ours. My logic says that when a machine is under test then let the designer takes care of it. I consider myself to be a TEST site for DEC on the 85/87/88 systems, therfore they can fix them. The real bottom line is that the service is TOTALLY dependant on the LOCAL office. If they have problems you will also. The reverse I hear is also true. Hope this helps. Remember to walk softly and carry a written contract. Baseball bats also come in handy once in a while. :-) Paul D. Clayton - Manager Of Systems TSO Financial - Horsham, Pa. USA Address - CLAYTON%XRT@CIS.UPENN.EDU