Re: [SAGE] to buy or not to buy service contracts

[Jenn Sturm <jsturm@hamilton.edu>]

If I could get our sales guy (a reseller) to do anything other than 
throw numbers around on the phone (i.e. send me an actual quote) I 
might know more about these options! Thanks--I will look into various 
ways to chip away at it. I think the maintenance is extra expensive 
because it's a remarketed machine, but perhaps they can lower it 
somewhat.

On Friday, January 10, 2003, at 11:27  AM, John Jasen wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Jenn Sturm wrote:
>
>> I've always bought service contracts for expensive equipment, but 
>> we're
>> in a strange situation here where it's just not clear if that's the
>> right path to take. We were offered a 32-processor SGI Origin 2000 for
>> $100K, with a $50K service contract. The machine is remarketed, which
>> I'm reluctant to go with, but it will perfectly fit a hole in our line
>> up of machines and enable us increase our resources on the cheap (we
>> already have a cluster--the Origin 2000 will serve a different need).
>
> SGI had several levels of hardware support, last I looked. You may be 
> able
> to shave quite a bit off that by choosing a lower grade of service.
>
> Or, if you already have a lot of SGI equipment under contract,
> you may be able to chip away at it.
>
> And finally, as a third option, maybe an SGI reseller will be able to 
> help
> you? When I was looking, I was able to cut the hardware support costs 
> by
> ~20%.
>
> -- 
> -- John E. Jasen (jjasen@realityfailure.org)
> -- User Error #2361: Please insert coffee and try again.
>
>
>


___________
Jennifer Sturm
System Administrator and Research Support Specialist
Chemistry Department
Hamilton College
198 College Hill Road
Clinton, NY 13323

tel: 315-859-4745
fax: 315-859-4744

jsturm@hamilton.edu

http://www.chem.hamilton.edu/
http://mars.chem.hamilton.edu/