Maintenance Service Agreement?

[PBXJR]

We have recently purchased an Avaya S8700 Switch and are about to meet with several Avaya BP's to choose a Maintenance Service Provider.

Are all the MSP agreements pretty standard? Is there any questions, coverage or extras I should make sure are included in the maintenance?


Thanks!

 

[phoneguy55]

Are you MSP's turned off? If so, make your BP give you the dadmin login. Some will, most won't as Avaya doesn't like this. but with MSP's off and no dadmin login, you can't troubleshoot anything...

Some will give you 24x7x365 service. It might be cheaper to get 8 to 5 M through F. Make sure they can be on site within 4 hours and login within 1 hour if there is an issue. Also, make sure they stock every board in your PBX. Make sure they have a number for you to call 24x7x365 for service.

 

[PBXJR]

Yes our MSP's are turned off and that is that is a big issue for us right now, we want the abilty to busy out stations, trunks, ports etc.

Are there any advantages with going with Avaya as our MSP?

Thanks for the advice!

 

[sjforcum]

The main advantage of using Avaya for Maintenance is you can then purchase (although I believe in CM5 they will be part of the standard package) MSPs.

As a business partner, we do not share the DADMIN password. We need to respect the password heirarchy incase someone changes a password, etc...

 

[PBXJR]

We recently got a quote to turn on our MS Permissions for $9,000.00 but since we are in the process of choosing a maintenance service provider, should we ask that MSP be included in our maintenance agreement? or is that only standard when choosing Avaya as your provider?

 

[phoneguy55]

Some BP's will give you the dadmin password if you use them for maintenance. If you know what your doing then there is no reason you shouldn't have that password as it is very similar to a superuser with MSP's. If you have Avaya maintenace you will get the MSP's. But I won't pay them the kind of money they want.

 

[btrain8]

I always choose to buy maintenance with Avaya direct. I don't like not having access to Denver.

 

[heathersuzanne]

I also go with Avaya direct, my BP sets it up. Once I have the Avaya maintenance I ask for MSP's but I dont pay for them. they've always been free for us as long as the maintenance is with Avaya.

Also - if you are setting up more than one site, try to consolidate all your sites onto 1 contract...better discount. I have 10 sites on 1 contract and I get 15% discount. If you choose a multi year contract you'll get even more of a discount.

 

[PBXJR]

What is Avaya direct?

 

[kwing112000]

Avaya has their own maint. THey do everything like a Bp would.

 

[mrjedi]

MSP licenses are 0.01 value. We are BP in UK and if customer wants this on. we do it free of charge. It takes 2 days to turn it on if you have your own access to RFA.

 

[mikeydidit]

You do not have to have a dadmin login for MSP's. They (Avaya) or one of the BP's can turn on permissions for whatever login you have.

Also you are going about this in the right direction by trying to get these included as part of your maintenance agreement. We have in the past had these turned on as part of us signing up for the service agreement.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

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