Self Maintenance - and MSP's

[gbensinger]

It would seem that to get "maintenance service permissions" one must maintain a service agreement with Avaya. For us that appears to be $25k/yr. Isn't there a better way!!

 

[Bobg1]

Maintenance essential assist is the lowest priced offering you can get from avaya. Cost is $.60/installed port.
Basically you pay them to be your friend and let you use the craft level access for maintaining you own switch.

 

[BuckWeet]

God, AVAYA screws you any way you do things.. What a horrible company..


BuckWeet

 

[bhanson184]

Avaya charges on a per port base. I have heard that they will negotiate on pricing. Depending on your level of software there may be other alternatives as to getting MSP turned on. As a side note we had a new PBX installed in December and asked for MSP's to be turned on. We are still waiting. One company I talked to was charged 25 cents a port. We paid close to 60 cents.


BHanson

 

[mmcalli]

Looking for a confirmation...
When you say $.25 - $.60 /port , you are talking about an ongoing cost per month, right? As for port count. Besides stations and trunks, what other items are counted? Can you reconfigure the system to page/e-mail you instead of Avaya when alarms are set? Thanks for any further info on this topic.

 

[Bobg1]

Yes that is a monthly fee.
As for the ports Stations, trunks, aux trunks. Anything that is installed, even if you are not using it, so you would want to strip out anything you are not using prior to switching. After the change is made you are responsible for the alarms from the switch.

 

[2K]

As far as I know, If you have an AVAYA PWM Agreement the MSPs are available for about $120/year.
That is all. But if your PWM Agreement is with a Business Partner then it is not available.

2K

 

[mikeydidit]

Welcome the new Avaya world. I had been self maintaining our switch for about 4 years. I convinced my director to do this based on the following. Our 7-24 service cost us around $118,000 a year. Afterhours calls had to be 75% service affecting or we would still be charged. Their idea of routine maintenance was to vacuum out of old filters. I checked into it and to replace our old filters and replace them to brand new for 6 EPN's and one Definity Audix cost about $40.00. They brought out refurbished packs straight out of the crach kit with a 90 day warranty for 3 times the price I could get them from the secondary market brand new with a 18 month warrarty. About a year ago I was told to get maintenance assist or loose my technical permissions on the switch. It came to about $3800.00 a month. Now that I am through gripeping I can help you. I recently have went to a Avaya busness partner for my maintenance assist. I think you will be pleasently surprised at several things you will find. Look at several and you should be able to save money and have better service.

Hope this helps you, Mikey.

 

[gbensinger]

[Mikey]what business partner's are you using?

 

[mikeydidit]

We have went with Universal Solutions. I still pay .50 a port, but they are opening up there own tier 3 support shop. I will be able to call and talk with a tier 3 on the weekends. Try that with Avaya. I have had several jobs that they have helped us with and the level of support is the best I have seen since the old AT&T days.

Please feel free to ask if you need more.

 

[Bobg1]

I have found that some of the partners even have trouble trying to get information on the maintenance assist program.
If you run into this problem here is the material code to have them check on: 119-043
description: Essential Maintenance Assist

 

[smg700]

MSP's have been a sore spot among every self-maintainer I have ever talked to, since it seems like Avaya is charging a fee to use something already purchased.

When we asked Avaya how they could do this, they said it was because they fully disclose to everyone who purchases a system from them that MSP's are required for an end user to self-maintain a system, and that would cost at least $ .60/ port.

This sure is not true in my experience, how about anyone else?

 

[rjblanch]

Hi all,

I dont know what the MSP covers and if it is the same here in Australia, but the only times we ever call Avaya is when something crashes and on some occassions they have to pass it on to the COE in Denver due to "We have never seen that before".

I know that we have to have some form of maintenance and also with our CMS server, even though we have our own Unix Gods, nothing can be touched. Is that the same the world over, or just in Aus...

Thanks

 

[OldPhoneGuy]

Hey, Mikey - Has Universal Solutions got a web site?

 

[mikeydidit]

I am not sure if they do or not. I can give you their information if you like. Send me a email mjones1@lsuhsc.edu


Mikey

 

[VOIPeng]

Another BP to try is

http://www.branttel.com,

they offer 24x7 monitoring and support, as well as onsite services. Also talking to their TAC department you will see that they house expertise at and far beyond Avaya's Tier 3, as well as Cisco expertise, so there won't be any finger pointing with VOIP issues.

I don't usually like to referrals like this but other people were so I figured I would as well.

But I would strongly recommend any existing Avaya Maintenance customers strongly look at Business Partner Maintenance plans when their current plan expires.

Thank you,
VOIPEng

 

[PBXinfo]

Your business partner can request a dadmin login.
Get one and use it.