Kevin, Thank you for airing your concerns. I agree with you that public scrutiny is the best tool for managing vendors. Here's the policy at Worlcom's EDI*Net, which one of my customers has been using for a number of years and which I have found as a software vendor to be most helpful and supportive, as well as reliable and reasonably priced. ---------------------- Forwarded Message: --------------------- From: Ken Mann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: More VAN Conspiracies (fwd) Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 10:58 -0700 (PDT) Dave: WorldCom's (new corporate name) EDI*Net offers a pro-active service outage notification service. Customers who wish it are placed on a notification list with key contact information and a preferable method of contact (fax, e-mail, page). Scheduled notifications are handled with 7 days prior notice, usually via e-mail. These occur on weekends only. If there is an unscheduled outage (network or servers are down) notifications will also go out. Updates are provided periodically until clear. There are no fixed time frames for these notifications since the nature of the outage would dictate the reaction time. I can provide actual stats on network and system uptime after an NDA is signed. We've been over 99% for over 4 years. Hope this helps. By the way, I'm still interested in attending a meeting of that Southern California EDI group, please let me know when the next one is. Sincerely: Ken Mann OffSite Services An Authorized WorldCom Messaging Agency 1874 Caminito de la Playa Glendale, CA 91208-3053 Tel: 818-247-7172 Fax: 818-548-1371 Website: www.offsiteservices.com Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 10:17 -0700 (PDT) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ken Mann) Subject: Re: More VAN Conspiracies (fwd) Ken, Here's an e-mail to the members of EDI-L, a listserv of people involved in EDI, and a response from one of the members. Since I don't know MCI's official policy, if you'd like to inform me, I'll be glad to spread the word. We're getting closer to the dial-up connection with EDI*Net from our NT server. I'll let you know when it's implemented. Best regards, Dave Sysmark Information Systems, Inc. ---------------------- Forwarded Message: --------------------- From: "J. Glenn Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: More VAN Conspiracies Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 11:10:13 -0500 Mr Benedict, You are mistaken. It is evident in your post that Harbinger does have a "service failure" notification policy . It is the one in place for most VANs. If your communication link doesn't work you call tech support. You are then notified there is a "service failure". Any questions :-) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Harbinger...hummm > > When I am late paying my VAN invoices, Harbinger's staff is amazingly > efficient at notifying me and following up. When their VAN "pipe" was down > unexpectedly on Monday they failed to notified us. When my team > investigated and realized that the VAN service was down, I was astounded to > learn that Harbinger does not have a "service failure" notification process. > Harbinger's statement was, "We have 45,000 clients, you can't expect us to > notify everyone when our service is down". Hummmm...I guess a solution > would be to reduce the number of VAN clients to a manageable level.... > > I would invite other VAN representatives to share via email (no calls > please) how they would notify their clients in the event of a "service > failure". > > I would hope that a public discussion of these issues would encourage > traditional EDI and VAN companies to "get with the program" and recognize > that there are alternatives these days. Therefore, they must compete for > our business by demonstrating true "value-added". > > 0============================0 > | Kevin Benedict > | B2B E-Commerce Manager > | micronpc.com > | 208-893-1738 > | [EMAIL PROTECTED] > | "The Process is the Product" > > 0============================0 > > ======================================================================= > To signoff the EDI-L list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > To subscribe, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > To contact the list owner: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/edi-l%40listserv.ucop.edu/ -- Glenn Thompson Programmer/Analyst American Trouser, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================================= To signoff the EDI-L list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To contact the list owner: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/edi-l%40listserv.ucop.edu/ ======================================================================= To signoff the EDI-L list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To contact the list owner: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/edi-l%40listserv.ucop.edu/
