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is capable of diagnosing and resolving issues remotely, saving time and money.
“Four years ago if an item failed at a site, the fi rst thing we would have done is put an engineer from our offi ce in a car
to drive to the site, while the remainder of the team would start diagnosing the issue based on the information we could
access remotely,” says Bishop.
“The reason we would do that send out an engineer is we knew there was a very good chance we wouldn’t be able
to rectify the fault remotely, but with our new system it is almost a certainty that we will be able to fi x the problem and
restore it remotely, and the cost saving of doing that is astronomical.”
make sense to opt for an extended
warranty in addition to a
maintenance contract. It is very much
a case of horses for courses, with
all manner of di erent service
options available from organisations
that operate within the radio
communication ecosystem.
Wilson says his company views the
physical deployment of maintenance
contracts as the reseller’s responsibility
and a good source of ongoing revenue
for them, although he adds that Syndico
does sometimes enter into agreements
with dealers for particularly technical
systems where the company will
carry out joint site visits to an enduser
with the dealer to o er guidance
andsupport.
“This was particularly relevant some
years ago when dealers were still getting
to grips with the di erent programming
requirements and product specifi cations
of Hytera equipment, but now that the
channel is familiar with Hytera we are
asked for this service somewhat less,”
says Wilson.
“We have seen an uplift in requests
for support with PoC installations for
the same reasons as above, but we
expect that this will now reduce as
reseller partners sell more and more
of the SYMPOC portfolio and have
Case study: London Buses
Tait Communications was chosen by Transport for London (TfL) in
March 2018 to install digital radio communications in London’s 9,200
red buses.
The project, completed on budget and on time last year, included a
system agreement that gives TfL access to KPI reporting, monitoring
and management services via Tait’s global service management
centre, in addition to on-site fi eld services, 24/7, 365 days a year.
The agreement requires Tait to respond to new job tickets within 20
minutes and to get a piece of equipment back online within four hours
even if that means the company physically ge ing on-site to change
acomponent.
As part of the service agreement, Tait uses what Jamie Bishop
describes as “big data analytics” to predict when problems might arise
so that the company can proactively respond. The system Tait installed
experience in answering end-users’
frequently asked questions.”
Maintenance contracts may not be
a big area of focus for Syndico at the
moment, but for companies like DCRS
they are a key part of its business o er.
DCRS provides three di erent
maintenance contract levels, which
cover o things such as annual
inspections, unlimited repairs and
guaranteed on-site response times. The
basic level would typically include an
annual service of equipment and the
provision of an engineer to carry out
on-site repairs.
“The premium level gives them
24-hours-a-day response, seven days a
week, year-round with the exception
of a couple of days over the Christmas
period,” explains Simon Weldon, key
account manager at DCRS. “If they have
a faulty system, if needs be we will send
out an engineer with a replacement
radio or unit, bring theirs back, repair
it and then swap it back over. With our
premium level we try to get anywhere
in the country, tra c permitting, within
four hours of a fault being actioned.”
Tait Communications o ers a similar
package of options, with the most basic
maintenance contract essentially seeing
the user self-diagnose the problem and
then sending the equipment to Tait so
that it can undertake fi xed-price repairs,
all the way through to what Jamie
Bishop, general manager, transport
sector, describes as a “complete
managed service”; this includes 24/7
access to the company’s service desk
and customer support engineers.
“We have a 24/7 central service
management centre located in New
Zealand that runs all of our high-level
service management and maintenance
contracts,” says Bishop. “In each of our
sub-regions we have service managers
and service technicians who can go onsite.
They hook into the global system
managed out of the central service
management system, so when we’re
monitoring or proactively identifying
potential issues that come up, or exist,
then they the sub-region service
managers/technicians respond to
thatlocally.
“The advantage of having everyone
hooked into the same system means
that potentially the team in the US could
support a customer in the UK if they
had to because they can gain access to
the same information and diagnostics
platform that we use globally.”
This degree of cover may be too
extensive for some customers who
may have much more basic needs. For
instance, Weldon says many two-way
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