Computer maintenance onsite repair service

Although the third-party maintenance (TPM) market is undergoing consolidation and lacklustre growth, PC owners still have a variety of choices to safeguard their investments.

In addition to TPM companies, resellers and manufacturers are devoting more resources to meet the growing need for cradle-to-grave services and a wide choice of options.

These can include upgrades and extensions to existing warranties, liquidation and disposal of used equipment, preventive maintenance, pre-installation cabling, equipment refurbishment and repair, and rental and lease equipment.

Over the last few years microcomputers have evolved beyond such standalone tasks as word processing and spreadsheet analysis. Today's PCs, providing significantly expanded processing power and storage capacities, are being joined by PC servers and complex networks to form mission-critical systems. So service organizations must be able to provide more than just a quick fix.

Increasingly, they must be able to handle installation services, life-cycle maintenance, product training, and nationwide on-site service.

Hardware service contracts can be tailored to each customer, or provided as a standard, off-the-shelf contract, determined by budget and the service organization's flexibility.

Service offerings generally include:

* Carry-in: generally the least expensive service available, it puts the onus on the customer to transport the product to and from the service provider; depending on the budget, and the service provider, replacement PCs can be made available during the repair cycle;

* Mail-in: an alternative when the customer can't get to the service provider or it can't get to the customer; it is typically more expensive and time-consuming than carry-in;

* On-site involves servicing equipment on the customer's premises, usually within agreed-upon response times (i.e. two hours, same day, 24 hours, etc.). This option can range from the service provider coming to the customer, to having a technician located onsite, either permanently, or during fixed hours.

For the major PC manufacturers, their resellers must be able to handle maintenance issues.

"Our authorized dealers have skilled technicians," says IBM Canada's Rick Andrews, manager of customer service offerings. "That's a requirement to carry the product."

Manufactuers like IBM and Compaq devote considerable resources to ensure that their resellers have the expertise, tools and parts necessary for handling PC, and related maintenance issues.

One of the most important resources is training, says Compaq Canada president, Don Woodley.

While it varies according to their own service capabilities, the number one demand from resellers is for "high-quality education for their technical people, both for qualification and on-going training and retraining," he says.

Increasingly, IBM is getting requests for "724" (seven-day, 24-hour) coverage from its larger customers.

"Our business partners are stepping up to that requirement," says Andrews, aided by both parts and technical support from IBM.

The overall improvement in the technical resources available from resellers means all PC manufacturers have to change the way they deal with their distribution channels.

Sandy Park, general manager of Hyundai Electronics Canada, says the PC market is moving towards on-site service, generally handled by the reseller.

"More and more dealers don't want to wait for repairs (to be completed by a third party), so dealers have to have the capability to do the service themselves."

And that, adds Park can be one of the keys to success for dealers, to be able to technically support their products and customers."

Steve Wexler is a Toronto-based freelance writer.