When They Tell You the End Is Near: How You Can Save the Life of Your Avaya Systems

In a previous blog, we looked at Avaya’s product support notice that announces End of Manufacturer Support (EOMS) for Aura/CM 5.2.1 from the perspective of the Avaya system owner: Is Avaya software support (Support Advantage Essential) of value to the Avaya system owner? We suggest that it is not, which is the subject of this blog. (In a later blog, we will look at the benefit of Avaya software support for customers with Aura/CM 6.x.)

Back to the matter at hand. Avaya has made it clear “the end is near.” So what does that mean to you?

First let’s look at what Avaya has to say about the useful life of their products. On page two of the Product Support Notice, you’ll note a section called “References.” Here’s where you will find the link to the official Avaya Product Lifecycle Policy:

Summary of Avaya End of Sale and Support Policies.

Still with me? Once you get to page 7, you’ll find a section titled EXTENDED SERVICES SUPPORT PERIOD. Here’s an excerpt—please note the italicized sections (emphasis ours):

Support Provided

Extended Services Support includes commercially reasonable efforts to provide the following (subject to contract terms and conditions):

Technical Support / Troubleshooting—All tiers through Tier 3 Backbone. Tier 4 support no longer provided.

• Access to Tier 3 troubleshooting tool set.
• Access to known issues and existing workarounds that may be available.
• Access to available/existing corrective content.
• Standard configuration consultation/guidance.
• Root Cause Analysis within the capability of the Tier 3 support team. Note: Over time, access to and availability of support expertise may decline, and/or customers may experience delays in response or repair intervals.

• Tier 4 support or access to expanded Tier 4 troubleshooting tool set.
• Code level de-bugging.
• New corrective content, e.g. Service Packs, Product Correction Notices, patches.
• Extensive troubleshooting on releases that are no longer under Manufacturer Support. An upgrade to the most current version within a release stream may be required if faults in the installed version prove difficult to resolve or reproduce.
• Costs associated with release upgrades and not covered by any existing in-force service agreement.
• Expanded Root Cause Analysis beyond Tier 3 capability.

Our take-away?

No Tier 4 support will be provided.  So we ask, isn’t that what software support is? Tier 4 support and patches?

We find it troubling to read the fifth bullet under “Tier 3 support includes the following” and again find ourselves asking Avaya system owners, Do you really want to experience delays when your system is down?

Likewise, we’d like to call attention to the fourth bullet under “Tier 3 support does not include the following”—the way we read this, Avaya has made it clear it will not provide extensive troubleshooting and may simply tell the customer that an upgrade is required.

In fact, many Avaya system owners have told us that they have experienced prolonged and frustrating downtime only to be told that they needed to upgrade.

In case you haven’t already done so, you may want to compare Avaya’s EOMS with Continuant’s Maintenance and Support plan

Our SLA includes a guaranteed Time to RESTORE, the top SLA in the industry. We offer this SLA for Avaya system owners with new and legacy systems. If you have Aura/CM 5.2.1, or an even older version, we will guarantee our response and restore times, with built-in penalties. In other words, we hold ourselves to a standard few in the industry can match. We guarantee it.

We will also make available extensive troubleshooting by our team of NOC engineers—as fine a technical team as you will find anywhere. And we will never tell you that you must upgrade to fix a problem. In fact, we will never pressure you to upgrade at any point. You can upgrade your systems at your pace, when it makes sense for your business.

We deliver the power of choice. That means YOU get to decide whether to extend the life of your Aura/CM 5.2.1 system(s) through Continuant’s excellent maintenance, service, and support at a great price, or you can keep whatever system you may currently have. Whatever you need, we’ll be there every step of the way—and we won’t ever tell you that “the end is near."

Questions? Need more information? 

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