There have been a number of initial changes that Avaya has implemented immediately following the acquisition of Nortel’s Enterprise Division. Although Nortel had contemplated changes to its maintenance program prior to the acquisition by Avaya, July 1st, 2010 was the official start date of a new maintenance model at Avaya.
If you haven’t heard the term “PASS” during the last 12 months as a user of Nortel/Avaya voice and data hardware you will become familiar with the term going forward. PASS stands for Partner Assurance Support Services. The point of program is fairly straightforward even if there will be some initial confusion about this program. Here’s the background for those that are interested:
Historically Nortel voice and data equipment was maintained when deployed at customer sites by its authorized (and sometimes unauthorized distributors). If there was a fault in the equipment, the authorized (or unauthorized) service provider would attempt to remedy the problem as they were the contract holder for maintenance services. In some (sometimes many or even all) cases that service provider may not have been able to solve the problem without support from Nortel. Assuming it was an authorized service provider partner of Nortel, they technician on site could call Nortel’s support line and discuss the problem and determine the resolution of the problem with Nortel’s help. Even if the maintenance provider was not technically authorized by Nortel, they could call and receive an invoice based on time and materials. In either case, all of the maintenance dollars flowed to the service provider and Nortel provided this service to partners for free or a very nominal charge even though they had to fully staff a Network Operations Centre and field thousands of calls a day from their service providers. This was obviously not a great or sustainable business model for Nortel but very lucrative for the maintenance service provider.
Unfortunately in any situation, that is so lopsided in terms of all the benefits flowing to the service provider and all the costs flowing to Nortel, there needed to be a change to balance the costs and benefits.
In addition, Avaya wants to maintain a high level of post sales customer service for its installed base by authorized and certifying accredited partners to provide maintenance services. In many ways PASS solves this problem by limiting the ability of non-Avaya accredited partners from offering services on Avaya technologies.
As I mentioned above, PASS is fairly straightforward. It is an agreement between an authorized service provider partner and Avaya where the authorized partner has the right to contact Avaya for advanced technical support on behalf of an end user customer and it legally allows the service provider partner to apply patches and upgrades as part of their maintenance requirements (with some fine print ie. the equipment must be within two releases of current version to receive support).
So as a customer, you might ask yourself, what’s all that got to do with me as a customer as it seems to be an agreement between Avaya and its authorized partners? In reality, using the name “Partner Assurance Support Services” is somewhat of a misnomer. It’s really Customer Assurance Support Services and would probably be far less confusing for everybody involved to change the name. Essentially, the benefits of PASS (and associated costs) flow back to the end user customer. The benefits are clear:
- As of July 1, 2010 your maintenance service provider must have a PASS contract in place on your behalf in order to be able to access advanced technical support from Avaya or legally provide you with access to software patches. Unfortunately without this contract in place, if there is a problem that your service provider cannot solve without the manufacturer’s assistance, which happens more often than most customers are aware, there could be extended periods of downtime.
- A PASS contract, as part of your maintenance agreement, should make you feel comfortable that you are dealing with an authorized and accredited service provider partner.
Combat Networks Recommendations:
- Ask your current service provider if they have a PASS contract for your equipment today. If not, you are not covered to the extent that you might think you are.
- If you usually issue a tender for maintenance services on existing Nortel hardware, make it MANDATORY that PASS is included in the price.
- If you are purchasing new hardware, it is mandatory that PASS be included to receive support from the manufacturer as PASS is tracked and contracted for by unit and not by customer.
- Budget for an increase in your yearly maintenance in the 10-15% range.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Adam,
You’ve got the makings of a great article but I can definitely see that you’ve missed the furor that Avaya’s PASS program has stirred up with customers. In short there has almost been a riot of sorts by customers who are feeling like they are being left to shoulder the burden and expense of PASS with little to no additional benefit. I’m not arguing with the program itself, many vendors and manufacturers have been doing this for years. I’m just wondering who’s been getting fat off all those maintenance dollars all these years? The resellers will get little sympathy from me on this one, but Avaya/Nortel also deserve their lumps given all the bugs/issues that come out of the software. I recently asked a VP level person at Avaya if I could open a time and material case with Avaya on a problem, and if the problem was a result of a bug or issue with the software (through no fault of the configuration) could I get a refund the same as we do today with Microsoft bugs? You can only imagine the stare I got… resellers are trying to “PASS” along this cost to customers who are already engaged in 3-5 year maintenance contracts. Where are we as customers suppose to find unbudgeted dollars for maintenance that we thought we were already getting? In my opinion this should have been handled completely different, Avaya/Nortel should have gotten with their resellers and partners and worked out the “increase” between themselves perhaps passing on some additional costs as contracts expired, etc.
As of now PASS is four letter word that is forbidden in my office and another reason to potentially look at alternate voice solutions moving forward.
Cheers!
Mike,
Thanks for the comments on the PASS article. I think your points are well taken and maybe the article should have been titled “Understanding Avaya’s Controversial PASS Support Program”. In fact, some of your comments are relevant to a few future blog posts that we are working on.
Although you seem to be very well informed, I think there is a general lack of awareness in the customer community. Avaya/Nortel business partners have been very vocal about the program. What’s interesting is that the resellers are generally saying the same thing – “We understand the need for the program, but the rollout should have been different”.
I looked quickly at the INNUA/IAUG site and didn’t see anything from the user group with regards to PASS and you would think the furor would have begun to surface in some of the discussion forums?
I do agree with your point that resellers have been getting fat on the maintenance contracts and that the customers should not bear the burden of a full PASS contract. What we are telling customers is that if you see an equation like: Last Year’s Maintenance Price + PASS = This Year’s Maintenance Price, then you better get a quote from a different maintenance provider. The maintenance providers must absorb some, if not most or all of the PASS costs upon renewal of the contracts if they are to remain competitive to what will be offered in the market. I suspect that this change will be one of the many factors that will drive Telco Service Providers out of the customer premise equipment supply and maintenance market as they are by the far the fattest of the fat when it comes to Resellers and most likely will not be able to compete when margins for resellers go down when customers like you say that you don’t want to see a PASS increase.
Wait. What? I’m just catching up on this Nortal/Avaya thing. Are you telling us that our current maintenance contract (which are already paid) are not worth anything when we need to go talk to Avaya for support?
Guillaume, with any other partner I would say yes, that your existing support contract would NOT entitle you to access Avaya 3rd level support.
However Combat Networks has been diligent in ensuring ALL of our customers have received Avaya PASS on their existing maintenance contracts, and this includes you and your organization. So you are covered for third level support from Avaya.
Thanks for your questions Guillaume!
That sure makes me glad we’ve chosen Combat Networks as our provider! Kudos to you and your team!