Our Maintenance Agreement (MA) and its purpose
Our Maintenance Agreement or MA is a formal document that defines our working relationship between parties involved for the maintenance of your phone system. It is generally more applicable to businesses than to consumers and involves one or more end user parties and a service provider. Our MA does not define how the service will be delivered but rather provides a measurable framework when our service is needed during the system fault occurrence or shut down. Typically, our MA is developed in a way that the problem is handled in a more professional manner by pinpointing the system error to restore normalcy quickly to cut out downtime on your business operation. Some metrics we use are defined in our MA which includes items such as the mean time between failures, an agreed accepted level of downtime across an agreed time frame, support response and resolution times so that you are not kept under suspense all the time.
Maintenance Agreements are different on a per service basis.
Our Maintenance Agreements are usually tailored back to back with our clients and same time working closely with our suppliers who are wholesalers of telecommunications infrastructure meaning that the actual Maintenance will be different from service to service. For example, whilst being an end customer, you may have the financial negotiation strength as a whole with us. If low cost telecommunication services are procured for some sites, it is unlikely that there will be a consistent business wide MA, as each site will come with its own MA back to back with the service provider like us, while the pbx system is connected to carrier provider, Telikom PNG as stipulated in the Telecommunication act.
If you can’t measure, the MA is then a piece of paper with little meaning
In essence, our MA is some sort of a guarantee of performance, negotiated between you as a customer and Conxions as your service provider. But to make the Maintenance Agreement to be actually meaningful, it needs to be measurable. MA’s are basically pointless without the ability to test and collect service metric data. That’s why a service performance reporting mechanism is included in our MA to measure our performance of the service is measured.
What does MA actually cover in simple terms?
Exact metrics of an MA are different among providers. Additionally, they are different for individual services acquired by the end customer. Our MA commonly defines the responsibilities of the service in regards to availability and performance. Some of the performance metrics include:
- Agreed service availability.
- Agreed service performance metrics.
- Agreed support availability.
- Agreed support performance metrics.
Our MA clearly defines the service levels expected of us as a service provider to help both parties eliminate the grey areas often involved in the provision of services within a Maintenance Agreement.
It’s possible to include some form of incentives for exceeding goals and penalties for failing to meet a certain level of service. Typically, telecommunication services are set with costs for the provider in the event that we are outside of the agreed metrics of the MA. This way we are being fair to accept some form of responsibilities rather than ignoring the situation.
An MA is required on a per service basis
Whether you are using a service provider for your pbx system, private IP network, managed firewall, help desk support or cloud computing platform, each service provided by the third party is an independent service. It means that each service would actually require its own MA with its own terms of service plus metrics negotiated on a case by case basis.
When both parties have meaningful Maintenance Agreements put in place, it helps to define the services and the performance that is expected from third party service providers. In most cases, the penalties or rebates that accompany the MA are more trouble than they are worth. The uptime, availability and performance of the service procured is far more valuable than the rebate.Most service providers will promote the fact that they have Maintenance Agreements in place for their services however, few will have the ability to effectively measure their service levels and even less will proactively provide Maintenance performance information on a proactive basis. Our Maintenance Agreement lays out clearly what is covered and not covered with no hidden costs and there is always room for negotiation for both parties to be comfortable prior to execution of the MA.
Conclusion
With Conxions, we have a well-designed, implemented and maintained Maintenance Agreement that cannot be matched by our competitors to make your organization a profitable investment with us when it comes to managing your telephone system 24/7
Our MA is key in protecting your organization by making sure that your phone system is functioning efficiently and to have a successful business relationship and mutual understanding with us in terms of performance standards of which are important to establish a positive working team with all involved parties.
When you choose Conxions, you will not only receive our best support but the ongoing quality of service and the turnaround time your organization will enjoy during the longevity of your relationship with us.
Always remember to review the contract as your business grows or changes. Your needs may change over time and your MA should always reflect your organization’s evolving needs.
Feel free to talk to us.