Hi all

Once again, I have a local rep calling me to renew my support
contract. While I view this as something like a protection racket,
we will probably renew, but I find myself kinda fuzzy on just
why. I thought I would outline what I have found them useful for
and see if other folks have found better ways to justify the cost.
While I am a little serious here, I don't have a problem with
"100 uses for a dead cat" responses either.

The best use I have for AB support is when I'm dealing
with a broken system with no source and expensive
downtime. AB can't do anything about this either, but
it deflects a lot of heat to say I'm waiting to hear back
from them. This is useful for quite some time and
management usually demands it anyways :^).
I have also found it useful for improving access to parts
at odd hours. I get phone calls for hours and days
afterwards as people come on line, but often I get a
line on the parts I need.
It seems to help with warranty service and the local
dealer seems a lot more willing to work something
out if you are "covered".
It hasn't been much use for the immediate answers I
need. I don't ask any "first tier" questions because I'd
rather spend the time on the problem than listening to
bad muzak or propaganda on hold. Usually, I can
figure it out faster myself.

Your turn
cww

 

We normally only call for somewhat obscure things that can't be found by searching the knowledge base. There are a fair number of things that for some reason cannot be found via the search function either thru google or via the knowledge base search, BUT the support staff seem to have no trouble finding them. I have always suspected there are some articles that are just not accessible from their web site unless you know the article number. In a few cases, even if you have the article number I have been unable to access the item from their web site, but the support staff can. Whether this is deliberate or just a database glitch I don't know. I do know there are a few items I have enquired about that they tell me they can read the article to me but cannot send me the text, either by email or fax. One of them related to the suitability (actually the lack of suitability) of some panevlview units in a purged/pressurized enclosure.

 

With my previous association with RA, I have also runn into KB articles that are "internal" to RA. I really don't think it's a competitive issue that these exist, it's more that preparing a KB that is vetted to be released to the public takes resources and time. This cost for a "very few" cases (as the internal evaluation most likely determines) is not justified in RA business terms.

However, if you are the person with the problem a KB article addresses, it is of little comfort. BTW, I don't see this discussion as airing the company's laundry, it's just a practice that is in RA's best interest (which is maximizing the shareholder's value - just like every other company attempts to do).

Concerning the early releases of a new product, Microsoft perfected the practice, RA just copies that "successful" company in getting a product out to serve a need before the competition (if at all possible). The guys inside RA have just as many issues with these products as do the SIs of the world; sometimes it's worse because the customer is paying for the access to ALL information available and that isn't always helpful.

 

One issue you will have without the RA support is software updates. Scenario: You currently have a ControlLogix processor, let's say version 13. You get a new piece of equimpment in that has the same processor, only it's version 16. Now you have a problem because unless you have your support, you don't get free upgrades, which means now you're buying new software (more expensive than support contract). I have a large number of controls (100+ drives, 500+ PLCs, 150+ HMIs, numerous motion controllers and drives) and am always getting new equipment with NEWER controls. For this reason, I have to keep my contract. I will say this, I think the price of the contract is crazy.

 

I have had numerous occaissions where having tech support pulled my fat out of the fire. Example; the first time we tried Kinetix drives, and didn't realize that a two-slot drive took up two node addresses. It turns out we didn't actually have motion support at the time, so when tech support told us they couldn't help us we went screaming at our local salesperson and distributor. Funny thing is that we were perfectly willing to give them a PO or credit card number on the spot, but you can't actually do that. It takes DAYS to get it through the system. Fortunately, our contacts got us the answer. We now have motion support in addition to several other flavors.

With regards to price, I actually don't think Rockwell is too bad. For example, you can have up to five copies of a piece of software on one contract for no additional cost. This works pretty well for us. If you're a big company you can negotiate even better deals.

James Ingraham
Sage Automation, Inc.