Having worked both sides of the fence I have some definite ideas on this.
I was a senior support engineer for Sidewinder and now I am a firewall
admin.
1. What is the reasonable minimum for response time on a support contract?
During a working day (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm) the minimum should be less than 30
minutes for a phone call. You should be able to get someone on the phone
very quickly even if it is just the new guy saying everyone else is busy.
I think there is a tendency to treat e-mail support as less important that
phone support but during the day an e-mail should be able to be answered
fairly quickly as well maybe with two hours. After core hours then a four
hour minimum response time would be acceptable. Just a quick we are
working on your problem is acceptable if it is a difficult or time
intensive resolution. I have also been in the position at Secure Computing
where everyone in support was sick except me so although I called everyone
back withing a few hours and explained what was goin on I wasn't able to
solve all the customer issues until the next day.
2. What are normal parameters for required escalation to a higher level of
support?
The customer should always be able to escalate to second level support. We
are paying them for quality support and if we feel we are not getting it
from a first level person then escalate it. I think that after 24 hours of
non-resolution without a reason for non-resolution a problem should
automatically be escalated.
3. Is it reasonable to have an absolute contractual deadline for final
issue resolution, and if so, what is a reasonable amount of time for this?
When I worked at Secure Computing there were customer problems that I spent
several days working on full time with a programmer so I don't think you
can arbitrarily pick a deadline for all problems that will be fair to the
vendor and the customer. Although, as a customer I like to see my problems
solved immediately =)
Regards,
Jeffery Gieser
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