What does the cost of technical support consist of and how not to overpay
Telecom operators maintain their telecom infrastructure, mainly by engaging service partners. Currently, these are ICT companies that once trained specialists, and in recent years have actively recruited engineers who previously worked for Western vendors who left the Russian Federation. By the way, these same specialists are now well versed in new solutions from Russian manufacturers. Partners also have their own laboratories for testing equipment, spare parts warehouses and other (undocumented) capabilities. And yet, in my experience, people are the main resource. In 90% of cases, the result depends on their hands and bright (and, of course, motivated) heads.
Before 2022, large carriers and enterprise customers sometimes entered into direct technical support contracts with manufacturers. But the overwhelming number of companies in Russia had contractual relationships with Russian integrators, who, in turn, entered into agreements with manufacturers for critical services and services that only vendors could provide.
After the departure of foreign equipment manufacturers from Russia, the entire system was scrapped. Our customers were faced with the challenge of re-evaluating the rules and practices of working with external technical support providers. The need for this not only has not decreased, but has become even stronger and more difficult to implement. Many companies have several competency centers that have their own defined areas of responsibility and performance indicators. Issues of legal purity, financial efficiency and technical competence usually have different owners, and we see how difficult it is for our customers to develop a final compromise. Often, the key criterion for winning a tender is the lowest cost of the contract, and the customer’s technical unit does not always have enough reasoning in disputes with procurement or financiers to evaluate the future service partner based on deeper competencies. But if you look only at the price, in 99 cases out of 100 this threatens unforeseen situations in the interaction process.
Therefore, I hope my article will be useful in terms of a separate analysis of all components of technical support services in the current environment. Read more under the cut.
In order to calculate the cost of services under a contract, you need to assess the scale of the required resources and risks that will accompany the project. The better and more efficient the communication with the customer at this stage, the more effective further cooperation will be from an economic and technical point of view.
We try to structure the entire communication process transparently and predictably for our partners. To help customers quickly immerse themselves in our approach, we suggest filling out a simple special questionnaire that will clarify all the nuances and allow you to transparently budget for technical support services. We use this questionnaire to work with all telecom operators and have tested it in action dozens of times – on post-warranty service projects. Spoiler alert: in the lion's share of cases, we fill out all the questionnaires ourselves, write and verify all technical specifications, but the questionnaire formulates key information, and it needs to be clarified and verified with the customer.
Бывает, что заказчик уже приходит с детально проработанным ТЗ, но, как ни странно, в текущей ситуации в таком подходе есть много подводных камней. Иногда ТЗ делается на основе предыдущего контрактного опыта, без учета реалий последних двух лет. Иногда — на основе опыта общения с единственным интегратором и по формализованным процедурам. Но анкеты и опросники, которые нужно заполнить, очень разные от интегратора к интегратору по своей глубине и степени проработки, не факт, что в больших лонгридах корректно расставлены приоритеты, существует описание возможных вариантов поведения, когда у заказчика большая инфраструктура с пробелами в инвентаризации и документировании. А ведь этот фактор влияет на результат. Недостаток данных может привести к недоразумениям и непониманию запроса, а избыточные требования — к удорожанию контракта.
So, the contents of the technical specifications. Let's go point by point.
1. Detailed equipment specification
The technical specification must reflect the specification of the equipment that is installed at the customer, and this is the first point of the questionnaire, which we fill out in detail. If the specification contains a list and description of the equipment in an accurate and complete form, then further calculations are carried out using this data.
If we receive only a list of device models, then we draw up an updated specification with all the information on the equipment together with the customer.
Equipment specification is one of the main sources for optimizing the cost and pricing of a potential contract as a whole, since we can offer various options for performing direct service work and optimized ways to use replacement equipment, taking into account possible limitations and risks.
Many of our customers, while solving problems of developing and improving the quality of service, devote slightly less time and resources to maintaining up-to-date information about their assets. But it is important to note that any joint work to clarify information gives a good result and has a positive effect on the accuracy of elaboration of implementation costs. For example, a well-founded expert assessment of the operating services about the typical composition of cards in the chassis or the approximate distribution of such typical options on the network.
2. Targeted equipment installation plan
The lion's share of projects in our portfolio require certain work to be carried out in connection with the equipment installation address. For example, this applies to sending repaired or restored equipment, picking up broken equipment from the installation address. Moscow or Khabarovsk – you must agree, there is a difference. Therefore, to accurately calculate the cost of a service, you need to know exactly where the equipment is located.
We will not describe this item for a long time; usually it is filled out as accurately as possible; you just need to take into account that the address plan may change if the customer installs additional equipment on the networks during the contract period. This, of course, does not bother us too much – we work with geographically distributed customers throughout the country.
3. Statistics of calls to technical support
I propose to dwell on this point in more detail. As I said earlier, it is very important to prepare the best competitive proposal to formulate and sort out all the unknown inputs as accurately as possible and specify the risks. We are trying to immerse ourselves in what is happening in the customer, in his tradition of operating and developing his network. For example, in the distribution of tasks between our own staff and contractors, in information security policies, the specifics of network expansion, etc. As practice shows, there are no two identical operators from this point of view.
What we look at and what historical data we request from the customer:
1. Number of requests for information support regarding the specifics of equipment operation, provision of up-to-date documentation, etc.
2. The number of requests for technical support during emergency recovery work (AVR): the number of cases of 1st and 2nd priority (with complete, critical or significant damage to services), the number of minor consultations and diagnostics.
3. Number of hardware failures per year. It is ideal to highlight the statistics of failures from power supplies and fans to the main equipment modules.
We detail requests by vendor, equipment line, and incident category. Incidents, in turn, are divided into four groups according to the following parameters:
· ATS equipment with significant degradation of services (25% or more). Yes, yes, we remember that you have an SLA with priorities, but at this stage, the distribution of ATS by type does not play a significant role.
· ATS equipment without significant degradation of services.
· ATS that entailed the replacement of hardware components.
· Requests for information support and documentation.
Based on the data provided, we calculate:
· specifications of equipment for spare parts (spare parts and materials) that will be required for the period of validity of the contract;
· specifications of equipment from the laboratory that will be used;
· the volume of repairs that potentially need to happen;
· the volume of replacements where repairs will not be successful.
Prediction of parameters for calculation depends on the specific operating conditions of the equipment, technical policies for operating the equipment by personnel, information security policies and other factors that are specific from customer to customer. Therefore, it is possible and necessary to calculate the parameters for a specific telecom operator as accurately as possible using current statistics, which already reflect the dynamics of what is happening on the customer’s network. Plus, statistics always reveal well the expert assessment of these same issues by the customer’s specialists.
For technical support contracts and post-warranty repairs of equipment from vendors with whom the customer maintains a relationship, it is important to avoid re-budgeting for work in the 3rd line of technical support, replacements or repairs. Therefore, be sure to indicate if a comprehensive network is being leased to the 2nd line, including equipment with ongoing contracts for equipment replacement, for providing access to software. The technical support partner will use existing contracts and eliminate its costs for this area of work.
4. Technical support for non-emergency work on the network
Here we ask you to indicate what kind of support plan for non-emergency work needed and how often. For example, a customer wants to regularly update the software once a year, and the presence of an expert on our part is required for consultation or other assistance. Or you need help in the process of upgrading equipment; usually there is also some kind of schedule or vision for the current year or the calendar year ahead.
There are requests for extended technical support that borders on operation. For example, a communication center is being put into operation, on which it is necessary to install certain equipment, or it is necessary to connect a larger number of new users, add line cards, etc. The introduction of some additional features may affect the operation of the equipment of another equipment vendor, and in this case, additional consulting support or even staging may also be required.
Or, conversely, a specific expert is required who will be immersed in the specifics of the design and development of a specific network for a specific customer. He must provide technical support in case of complex, system cases that require network design changes. Conduct dedicated workshops with customer operations on these issues. Lead or personally conduct network audits, including performance assessments and resiliency measures. Regularly issue recommendations to improve the performance characteristics of individual nodes and entire communication networks.
5. Software update on customer networks
The specifics of software updates from manufacturers that have stopped supporting equipment in the Russian Federation have changed, and to clarify the cost of post-warranty support, expanded information about the software used is required.
Everyone remembers how it was before: after purchasing equipment, the manufacturer provided access to a portal where marketing materials were posted, as well as technical documentation and access to software updates. The policy for issuing access varied from vendor to vendor – some provided information only on purchased equipment. Others gave access to a database of the entire line of equipment without any restrictions, especially if the buyer had Gold Partner status.
In reality, the chain was much more complicated: the equipment was purchased not only by the end user, but also by the distributor, reseller, and sometimes users resold their hardware. So access control was not so simple before, but now everything has become much more complicated. Documentation cannot be obtained through official channels. If such a channel can be obtained, then it costs specific money, I would even say that now it is a very noticeable item in the expenditure budget.
To achieve the best price for a project, the customer first needs to formulate how many times a year he needs to update the software and for what purpose. There may be segments where this is not required at all. Such information will allow the technical support provider to seriously optimize the budget in terms of software support costs. We suggest using the following factors as sources of inspiration for this work:
1. Specific requirements for information security when updating software.
Even if the software was purchased through legal channels, no one can guarantee the absence of risks in terms of information security in connection with the place of production of the software (India, NATO countries, etc.), because it may be controlled by unfriendly countries.
2. Software update policy on the network: requirements for regular software updates and maintenance of these works.
Previously, all telecom operators had certain policies that regulated the scope of updates, for example, in connection with official releases.
Today, blindly following such policies is an additional expense. For example, we often see equipment on End-of-Support customer networks with software versions 1-3 lower than the final GA release of the model. We recommend that you make a final decision: upgrade one-time to the final one or stay with the existing version, but do not include in the technical specifications the general vague requirements of “delivery of software on request”, under which the contractor always includes the worst-case scenario for himself.
As for support for work with software, you also need to think about whether you only need a consultation or direct access to the software and its installation, whether you need to work with incidents resulting from the installation of new software. The next point follows from this point.
3. SLA for work with equipment software.
Access to new software is now not only limited, not only more expensive, but also longer. Even with a budget now, this is a story stretched out over time – it can take up to 1 month to get the necessary update.
This is due to the need for documentation, with the presentation of justifications for access to the software. Additional data may be requested by the vendor, who has their own compliance.
To be continued….
